Barnes & Noble Education continues to benefit from the growing adoption of its First Day program, through which students pay for course materials as part of their tuition or via another fee at a discounted price from buying materials individually. First Day sales jumped 20.8% in the quarter ended January 25, 2025, and helped to offset declines in traditional purchases of textbooks and a 1.1% drop in sales of general merchandise. In all, total revenue at B&NE increased 2.1% over a year ago, to $466.3 million. B&NE reported that a total of 191 campus stores are using First Day in the spring 2025 term with a total enrollment of approximately 957,000 undergraduate and graduate students, up 18.9% from 805,000 in the prior year.
The small sales increase coupled with ongoing cost-saving initiatives helped turnaround a net loss of $9.6 million in last year's third quarter to net income of $7.1 million. Even with the improvement in the quarter, sales through the first nine months of fiscal 2025 were flat at $1.3 billion, and the net loss was $42.6 million, up from a net loss of $35.0 million in last year's third quarter. The year-to-date loss, B&NE noted, includes $55.2 million in one-time charges. Adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization), which excludes one-time items, rose 57%, to $72.7 million, from $46.3 million last year.
The company provided a cautious outlook for the future, explaining that B&N Education remains in a "transitory" period as it focuses on cutting payables and liabilities while increasing revenue. It added that it remains "optimistic" that the company will generate free cash flow in fiscal 2026.
