Contract and e-commerce sales at Office Depot's Business Services Group are up in the third quarter, though the company's North American catalog business has remained soft, the company said yesterday in announcing expectations for the third quarter, which ends Sept. 28.
“We are projecting total BSG sales growth in line with our mid single digit guidance, up sequentially over the second quarter,” said Chairman/CEO Bruce Nelson. “BSG gross selling margins are in line for the quarter; and on the operating cost side, we continue to see the planned improvements in quality and efficiency.”
Nelson said that the company is “still comfortable with the current earnings consensus of $0.27 per share for the third quarter, a 35 percent increase over the $0.20 per share we reported for the third quarter last year.”
Total company sales are expected to grow in the low to mid single digit range for the third quarter despite back-to-school sales that are below expectations.
