MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
June 1 – 15, 2004 Edition
Borders First Quarter
Shows 10.4 Percent
Sales Increase
NEW YORK, NY/05/24/2004Book sales continue to comprise Borders Group’s strongest revenue stream for the first quarter of the year, with a 10.4 percent increase in sales to $838.1 million. The company overcame its $4.8 million net loss of last year’s first quarter to report a net income of $3 million in the first quarter this year, exceeding expectations.
Books about dieting and politics were the strongest sales categories, while in fiction sales doubled for The Da Vinci Code, year over year for the comparative periods.
Borders superstores reported a 10. percent increase to $77.3 in the first quarter, and the company expects an overall earnings increase of up to 15 percent for the entire year, though it predicts declines in the second quarter.
Borders-owned Walden stores, which had a weak first quarter last year, saw a 5.6 percent increase in same-store sales to $150.8 million.
