Golf Town Income Fund announced that revenues for the third quarter ended September 30, 2005 increased 12% to $60.9 million from $54.4 million for the third quarter of 2004, before the company went public. EBITDA increased by 8% to $8.5 million in the same period.
Successful new store openings were largely responsible for the strong improvement with higher web-based and special event sales making growing contributions. Same store sales for the quarter were 1% higher than the same quarter last year. Gross profit as a percentage of sales decreased to 32.95% in the third quarter compared to 33.25% in the period a year earlier.
For the nine months ended September 30, 2005 sales rose 16.7% to $159.3 million while EBITDA increased 28.8% to $20.2 million compared to the same period a year ago. Same stores sales were up 3.4%.
“Golf Town posted another strong, yet comparatively modest performance during the three months ending September 30, 2005 following our record setting growth in the second quarter. The Canadian golf season started strong and early and as a result, we believe that our results reflect a year-over-year shift in customer demand from the third to the second quarter. Together, the second and third quarters are the key to Golf Town's success and we are very pleased with our performance over this vital period,” said Stephen Bebis, president and CEO.
Distributable cash was $8.1 million in the third quarter, or about 64 cents per unit, while $3.3 million, or about 26 cents per unit, was paid in distributions. Historically, about two-thirds of Golf Town's revenues and all of its EBITDA(1) is generated in the second and third quarters, when Canadians play the most golf.
Distributable cash) was $18.7 million in the first nine months ended September 30, 2005, or about $1.49 per unit. During the same period distributions were $9.9 million or about 79 cents per unit.
