Indigo closes the books on a flat second quarter

Even Canadian retailers are feeling the downturn in consumer spending.

For the second quarter of the 2009 fiscal year, Indigo Books & Music Inc. posted web sales in U.S. dollars of $17.1 million, a decrease of 20.9% from web sales of $21.4 million in the prior year. In Canadian currency e-commerce revenue for Indigo, No. 137 in the , e-commerce revenue dropped year-over-year by 19.8% to $21.1 million from $26.3 million.

Overall Indigo in the second quarter in U.S. dollars posted net earnings of $2.6 million on sales of $166.6 million vs. net earnings of $2.7 million on revenue of $169.7 million in 2008. In Canadian dollars, the multi-channel books retailer recorded net earnings of $3.2 million on sales of $205.3 million, compared with net earnings of $3.4 million on revenue of $209.2 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2008. The web accounted for 10% of sales in the second quarter in both U.S dollars and Canadian currency.

“We knew it would be tough to grow the top line against this quarter last year given the phenomenal success of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” says Indigo CEO Heather Reisman. “Still, we were pleased with the bottom line results given today’s challenging economic climate.”

For the first two quarters of the current fiscal year, Canada’s largest books retailer saw its web sales drop by 7.8% to $36.8 million in U.S. dollars from $39.9 million in the prior year. In Canadian dollars, web sales declined by 7.7% for the period from $49.1 million to $45.3 million. Overall, combined sales for Q1 and Q2 of fiscal 2009 reached $395.8 million vs. $394 million in Canadian currency in the prior year. In U.S. dollars combined sales rose by 1.5% to $321.1 million from $316.4 million.
www.internetretailer.com/