Cabela’s Posts Hefty Gains in First Quarter

Cabela’s Incorporated reported that its total revenue for the first quarter ended March 29 increased 15.9% to $535.5 million compared to $462.1 million for the first fiscal quarter of 2007.

In the first fiscal quarter of 2008, retail store revenue increased 37.7% to $254.4 million with a same store sales decrease of 8.4%; direct revenue decreased 0.6% to $236.5 million; and financial services revenue increased 13.9% to $40.7 million.

“We are very pleased with our 70 percent growth in consolidated operating income for the first quarter of the year, despite ongoing challenges in the consumer environment,” said Dennis Highby, Cabela’s President and CEO. “We are particularly encouraged by operating income increases of 55 percent in our retail segment and 3 percent in our direct segment. We were able to drive meaningful operating margin expansion in each division due to improved gross margins and expense management. Additionally, our financial services business outperformed our top and bottom line expectations during the quarter. Performance of our managed credit card portfolio with regard to delinquencies and charge-offs was in line with our expectations.”

“We remain focused on improving retail store profitability and are already seeing positive benefits from initiatives we put in place late last year,” Highby said. “We have improved four-wall contribution and lowered inventory per square foot in our comp stores. At the same time, we remain on track with our store expansion plans and expect to open a new store in Scarborough, Maine, on May 15 and another in Rapid City, SD in August. We are committed to taking the necessary steps to improve our business across the board and are pleased with the traction we are getting with our initiatives to drive retail profit improvement. We remain confident our leadership position in the marketplace will afford us significant growth opportunities well into the future.”