Select Comfort posts $6.6 million loss
Same-store sales plunge 20% in quarter
Larry Thomas -- Furniture Today, July 24, 2008
MINNEAPOLIS — Select Comfort, the nation’s largest air bed retailer and manufacturer, recorded a net loss of $6.6 million in the second quarter due largely to weak sales at its network of company-owned stores.
The company, which had a profit of $2.9 million in last year’s second quarter, said total retail sales were down 15% and same-store sales plunged 20%.
Bill McLaughlin, CEO, said the second quarter typically is the company’s weakest, and he noted that the company’s operating loss of $10.3 million was less than the first quarter’s operating loss of $11 million.
“We made important progress in the second quarter in reducing costs, stabilizing sales and laying the groundwork for a return to profitability in the second half of the year, even with growing inflationary pressures and weak macro-economic conditions,” McLaughlin said.
Sales for the quarter ended June 30 were $152.1 million, compared with $179 million in last year’s second quarter.
The most recent quarter’s loss is equal to 15 cents per share. In last year’s second quarter, Select Comfort had earnings of 6 cents per share.
For the first half of the year, sales were down 19% to $320.2 million. The first half net loss totaled $13.7 million or 31 cents per share.
In the first half of last year, the company had a profit of $13.6 million or 27 cents per share.
