Electronics Boutique 2nd Quarter Sales Up 39%

By Jeff Malester On Sep 3 2001 - 6:00am

On target to achieve record sales and improved profitability in its full fiscal 2002 year, Electronics Boutique reported a 39.1 percent increase in total revenue during its fiscal second quarter, reaching $174.4 million, compared with $126.1 million in the year-ago period.

The specialty game/PC retailer, however, reported a net loss of $1.5 million for the second quarter ended Aug. 4. This was down from a net loss of $2 million in the same three months in 2000, including non-recurring income attributable to a termination fee.

Comp-store sales at Electronics Boutique in the second quarter increased 24.8 percent, primarily due to strong sales of PlayStation2 hardware, software and accessories and the introduction of Game Boy Advance system this past June, the company said.

The retailer expects third-quarter total revenue to increase to about $194 million, mainly due to positive comp-store sales increases and additional stores opened since the prior year period.

Electronics Boutique anticipates about a 60 percent increase in year-over-year sales from the video game category — the majority of the increase derived from the four new video game systems — PlayStation2, Game Boy Advance, GameCube and Xbox.

For the six months, total revenue reached $355.3 million, a 28 percent rise over the $277.6 million recorded in the fiscal first half of 2000.

The retailer reported a net loss of $3 million in the first half, excluding non-recurring income. Including this item, the company reported net income of $397,000 in the year-earlier six months.