BAM Third Quarter: Sales Edge Up, Net Loss Even

books a millionIn the third quarter ended November 1, revenue at Books-A-Million rose 1.2%, to $101.2 million and the net loss was $6.9 million, identical with the same period last year. Sales at stores open at least a year rose 1.8%.

Terrance G. Finley, CEO and president, commented: "We delivered solid sales performance in our retail stores as we built on the results from the prior quarter. We saw positive comparable sales in the largest categories in our core book business led by Kids and Teen, where our sales continue to be boosted by movie tie-ins from Disney's Frozen to John Green's Fault in Our Stars. We also saw positive results in our General Merchandise category and Cafés. In our 2nd and Charles division, we continued our expansion with two new stores located in Athens, Ga., and Bossier City, La., which brought our store count to 22."

In a conference call, Finley added that graphic novel sales "grew nicely on the strength of a significant resurgence in interest in several manga series, particularly Attack on Titan, and we saw favorable comparisons in the history, humor and calendar categories as well. In the general merchandising area our expanded offering of toys, games and puzzles and book-related items continued to resonant with our customers as we saw solid growth across nearly all of our gift categories." He noted, too, that book accessories were among the top-performing categories.

As for books in the fourth quarter, Finley stated that "the publishing lineup remains relatively modest compared to last year, but we are excited to have great new commercial fiction from the likes of Stephen King, James Patterson and Patricia Cornwell and several strong new releases on the nonfiction side, including 41, President George Bush's biography of his father. And the media environment, while not quite as strong as in recent months, still remains book-rich and should continue to drive sales with the release of big-screen adaptations of several great book titles, including the third film in the Hunger Games series, Mockingjay, Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken, Cheryl Strayed's Wild, Tolkien's The Hobbit and Chris Kyle's American Sniper.

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