Lands' End, Dodgeville, WI, reported a 9.8 percent rise in sales for the first quarter ended May 1, primarily attributable to a rise in the number of pages and catalogs mailed, particularly in the company's specialty businesses.
Sales for the quarter were $269 million, compared with $245 million for the same quarter last year. Last year's first quarter also included $5.1 million in revenue from The Territory Ahead, in which the company had a majority stake at the time. Excluding that amount, sales rose 12.1 percent.
Sales for the first two months of the quarter were unexpectedly soft, and the majority of the sales gains were realized in the last months of the quarter. Sales from the core business, represented by the company's regular monthly and prospecting catalogs, were flat.
Net income for the quarter just ended, was $5.2 million, down 54 percent from last year's first quarter earnings of $11.3 million. The first quarter last year, however, included an after-tax gain of $4.7 million, from the sale of the company's majority interest in The Territory Ahead. Excluding this non-recurring gain, net income for the prior year's first quarter was $6.6 million.
The company's selling, general and administrative expenses rose 14 percent to $116.3 million, compared with $102.2 million, for the first quarter last year, due to lower catalog productivity and higher costs associated with the company's year 2000 efforts.
