Kids retailers continue to report improvement
By Janice Chamberlain -- Kids Today, 9/1/2006
HIGH POINT — The fourth quarter was a pleasant change for the 11 
retailers on Kids Today’s quarterly scorecard in terms of earnings improvements.
Seven of the companies improved their earnings performance in comparison with the final quarter of 2002, two more than the five companies who managed the same trick comparing their third quarter 2003 earnings with their comparable 2002 quarter results.
Among the earnings improvers was once again Kmart, which for the second consecutive quarter posted net income instead of a net loss.
Seven of the retailers reported revenues increases compared with the final quarter of last year. Leading the pack, as expected, was mega-retailer Wal-Mart, which posted a $8.3 billion increase in the quarter over the same period in 2002.
Next in line behind Wal-Mart was Target’s $1.5 billion in added revenues.
While Wal-Mart and Target were tops in revenue dollar-adds, specialty retailer Bed Bath & Beyond continued its trend of racking up the largest percentage gain in revenues — 23.7% — comparing the final quarter of 2003 with the final quarter of 2002. This is the third consecutive quarter that Bed Bath has at least a 20% increase in revenues over the comparable, year-earlier period.
Coming in behind Bed Bath, yet still managing double-digit revenue growth were Wal-Mart, which scored 12.4% and Target, which posted a 10.7% increase.
When it comes to earnings improvement, no matter how you look at it, the champ for the final quarter of 2003 was Sears, Roebuck. The venerable retailer added $1.9 billion in earnings to profits of $848 million a year ago.
Sears also scored in percentage gain in net income, moving up a whopping 224.2%.
Sears Chairman and CEO Alan Lacey said, “Our accomplishments in 2003 position us well to achieve our 2003 goals of building topline momentum, improving our margin structure and growing key businesses to further enhance our competitiveness.”
Overall, revenues for the 11 retailers were up 7% to just over $125.7 billion from 2002 fourth quarter revenues of $117.5 billion. Collective net income grew a huge 62.1% to $5.9 billion from $3.7 billion a year ago.
The group added $8.2 billion in revenues in the quarter and $2.3 billion in net profits, compared with last year’s fourth quarter.
Kids Today’s fourth quarter retailer scorecard is based on the financial results of 11 publicly traded companies with fiscal quarters ending from December 27, 2003, to February 28, 2004.
