| CompUSA has announced their fiscal 3rd Quarter Results for the three months ended March 27. The company announced a loss for that quarter despite having higher sales than was reported for the year ago quarter (US$1,691,350,000 compared to US$1,451,819,000.) There were several contributing factors according to the company including pricing pressures, new store openings, and Internet related projects.
We spoke to Suzanne Shelton, Public Relations spokesperson for CompUSA. While the company will not break down platform specific sales percentages, Ms. Shelton did have one piece of positive information for us. According to Ms. Shelton:
"If you count all five colors together, the iMac has been our number one selling 'PC.'"
Unfortunately Ms. Shelton could not go into more detail or give us any more information on the Mac aspect of their business.
The following is the CompUSA press release
The company, which operates 211 superstores nationwide, reported a loss of $4.9 million, or 5 cents per share, for the three months ended March 27, compared with net income of $25.4 million, or 27 cents, for the third quarter of fiscal 1998.
Wall St. expected a loss of 5 cents, according to analysts surveyed by First Call Corp., which tracks such estimates.
"We are clearly disappointed with our third quarter financial results," Chief Executive James Halpin said in a statement. "Aggressive pricing in the quarter as a result of less-than-anticipated customer demand negatively impacted our gross margins."
Excluding the impact of costs related to information technology and Internet projects, the company said its operating results were break even.
Net sales for the third quarter increased 16 percent to $1.69 billion from $1.45 billion a year ago. Comparable-store sales decreased 7.2 percent for the 148 stores open one year or more.
CompUSA said it would slow the pace of its new store openings to 10 for fiscal 2000, after expanding by 40 percent in the past 12 months.
Sales from the converted Computer City stores that CompUSA still operates were included in the third-quarter net sales figures but not in the comparable-store sales calculations.
Skinner said he was "cautious" about the fourth quarter, though he said he expected comparable-store sales to improve.
"Our comparable-store sales for Q3 was a negative, but in Q4 we expect it to be above zero," he said.
The Mac Observer Spin: The financial health of CompUSA is important to all Mac users as Apple has its biggest retail presence in the computer superstore. The loss for this quarter is not that big a deal however. For one thing, the company would have broken even had it not been for investments in the future in the Internet operations. Those investments will eventually show a return for the company.
What is interesting is that while the company will not break their platform information down, Ms. Shelton was very quick to tell that the iMac was selling well. This is hopefully indicative of the general company attitude, the iMac and Mac related products are doing well for the company.
If any Observer have 1st hand knowledge of how the Mac is specifically doing for CompUSA, please let us know!
CompUSA
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