Big 5 Sporting Goods reported last week that same-store sales rose approximately 1.7% for the fiscal first quarter ended April 3, based on preliminary results.

Steven Miller, Big 5's chairman, president and CEO, said that the gain was achieved despite the Easter shift resulting in one less business day in Q1. Miller also said they had to overcome “unusually dry weather in the Pacific Northwest and near-record rainfall in Southern California.”

On a sour note, Big 5 reported late Friday that the Nasdaq National Market had issued a notice of intent to delist BGFV shares due to the retailer’s failure to file their 2004 10-K by the required date. Big 5, whose shares were listed as “BGFVE” on Monday due to the delinquency notice, said they will appeal the delisting action.

At issue is Big 5’s announcement last week that it would not file its 10-K for the 2004 fiscal year by April 4, 2005 as required. The delay is evidently associated with BGFV’s efforts to “most accurately record the correction” of an accounting error disclosed by the retailer in February. The company and its Audit Committee have decided to restate BGFV's quarterly financial statements for 2002 and 2003, in addition to the fiscal year periods.

Management does not expect that its audited financial statements for the full year periods will be “materially different from the preliminarily restated financial statements” reported in early February, but they will adjust previously reported fiscal 2004 quarterly financial statements to reflect the restatements and the other adjustments. The net impact of all adjustments on fiscal 2004 will be a slight increase in diluted EPS from those previously reported.

Big 5 said in February that the restatement, which is expected to impact net income by $1.2 million for 2001, by $2.1 million for 2002, and by $1.4 million for 2003, was reportedly caused when “certain credits in the accounts payable account related to commercial invoices were not matched on a timely basis with the corresponding letter of credit items.”