For the quarter ended October 31, Aeropostale reported sales up almost 18% to $568 million. For nine months, they rose almost 20% to $1.43 billion. Gross profit margin in the quarter rose from 36% in the same quarter last year to 39.3%. For nine months, it was up from 34.4% to 37.5%. Selling, general and administrative expenses were down as a percentage of sales for both the quarter and nine More…
Archive for 2009
Aeropostale; the Power of Good Systems and the Right Market Position
Thursday, December 17th, 2009Hot Topic: A Competitive Strategy We Should Be Thinking About
Saturday, December 12th, 2009Hot Topic has reported their results for the quarter ended October 31 and their sales for the month of November. Their sales were down some for the quarter and more in November, but they continued to make money in the quarter and their balance is very strong. But I don’t want to crunch their numbers. I do enough of that. I want to focus on their strategy and its relevance to the Action More…
Alternative Camber; An Idea Who’s Time has Come- Again
Saturday, December 12th, 2009A couple of weeks ago, I was paging through Transworld Snowboarding’s Gear Guide, and I came upon the page on alternative camber. I read it with interest to try and keep with the latest technological trends, but paused when I saw the illustration of the cambered medley snowboard. Something about the cross section of the board, showing camber at both ends, jogged my memory. I went down to my garage, ventured into More…
Zumiez’s Nov. 2009 Sales Results- A Couple of Comments
Friday, December 11th, 2009Yesterday, Zumiez reported that sales for the four week period ended November 28th, 2009 decreased 1.8% compared to the same period the previous year. For the same period, they reported that comparable store sales fell 8.5% compared to a decline of 15% in the same period the previous year. In the first place, I want to suggest that paying attention to four week numbers may be fun, but it doesn’t More…
ASR and Crossroads Make a Deal; What a Surprise!
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009This is good news because it makes things easier for the retailers, which I may have said a time or two is what trade shows need to be about. Crossroads needed retailers, which ASR can help supply, and Jamie Thomas doesn’t want to have to manage the logistics that will be required if Crossroads grows. ASR needs the skateboard industry. I don’t think Andy Tompkins wants ASR to be thought of as “a More…
PacSun Oct. 31 Quarter Results: New Strategic Focus From New CEO
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009Okay, so I finally hold in my hand both the transcript of the conference call and the actual quarterly report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. I’ve read them and cogitated on their meaning and finally have a couple of things to say that maybe somebody besides me will find interesting. The most interesting stuff is strategic in nature. A couple of years ago I wrote that PacSun’s biggest problem was More…
What Does the Skate Industry Want From Trade Shows? I Think I Know.
Saturday, December 5th, 2009Transworld is trying to get an on line discussion of this topic going, and that’s a good idea. So far, it hasn’t generated much discussion and that’s too bad. Maybe the problem is that they’ve asked the wrong question by focusing on the skate industry. If they’d just asked, “What does a company- any company in any industry- want from trade shows?” they might have gotten some better answers. At the risk of More…
Spy Optics (Orange 21) Sept. 30 Quarter and 9 Month Results
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009I always look forward to Orange 21’s filings. It’s just about the only chance we get to see the numbers from a smaller company in this industry, because there just aren’t many of this size that are public and required to show us their results. I also like them because since their change in management, when Stone Douglass came in first as a consultant and then as CEO, they’ve done a More…
Volcom Quarter & Nine Months Ended 9/30/09
Thursday, November 12th, 2009Volcom’s Quarter and Nine Months Ended September 30 Back on October 29th Volcom released a press release with its third quarter results and hosted a conference call on those results. Everybody read, and listened, and analyzed, and wrote stuff. On November 9th, with no press release, they filed their 10Q for the same time period. Nobody seems to have noticed, and maybe nobody cares. But I do. I don’t think there should be More…
Opportunities for new Labels and Small Brands. What, Exactly, Should You Do?
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009I’ve been chanting for the last few months, and maybe longer, that our current economic environment represents a great opportunity for new and smaller brands. At an ASR seminar in September, somebody actually, finally, asked me, “What do you mean by that exactly?” My answer was that if you were a specialty retailer, and were still standing, you weren’t likely to succeed by relying on big, national brands as much as More…
