The addition of 41 former Borders stores opened in October and November helped boost sales at Books-A-Million in the fourth quarter ended January 28 by 10.7% to $166.9 million. The new stores offset a 5.7% decline in comparable store sales in the quarter. Net income in the final quarter rose 10.3%, to $7.5 million. Despite the strong fourth quarter, sales for the full year fell 3.6% (with comps down 9.5%), to $468.5 million, and BAM had a net loss of $2.8 million compared to earnings of $8.9 million in the previous year.
In addition to opening 41 new stores in the period, BAM closed 21 underperforming outlets at a cost of $1.6 million. BAM finished the fiscal year with 257 stores. Costs related to changes in its store locations totaled $5.4 million for the full year. Commenting on the results, Clyde Anderson, chairman, said, “We were pleased with the holiday season and the improved sales results in the fourth quarter. Our investments in the new stores yielded our strongest fourth quarter performance in years, our new businesses performed well and the erosion of the core book business slowed from the pace we faced earlier in the year.”
Terry Finley, who has been promoted to CEO, said BAM's core book business "was stronger than expected," and added that the negative impact of digital sales on its print business was less than last holiday season. Strong book categories included teen, history and children's, which did very well with Elf on the Shelf. Sales of the Nook were good, Finley said, with the Nook Tablet accounting for about half of all device sales.
Anderson said the collpase of Borders did not result in a meaningful increase in customer traffic at BAM, since the retailer only competed with Borders directly in 15 locations. In those outlets, he noted, sales did rise noticeably.
With Finely's promotion, Anderson will remain as the company’s executive chairman.
