West Marine, Inc. cut its sales guidance for
fiscal year 2007 and they are now are expected to be approximately $683 million to $688
million. Comparable store sales for the year are now estimated to
decrease between 1.5% and 2.5%. As a result, the company is revising
its full year 2007 earnings guidance to be in the range of 24 cents to 34 cents per share versus the previously issued guidance range of 45 cents
to 55 cents per share.
Peter Harris, West Marine's chief executive officer, stated, “As
we move through the peak season, boating activity throughout the
country has not shown signs of recovery, and revenues have been
disappointing. Primarily, we are seeing softness in the Southeast,
particularly Florida, which is a key boating market. Broadly, sales of
higher-priced discretionary items, such as electronics, have been
weak, and in-store traffic levels, which we believe reflect boat
usage, have been lower than expected. We indicated during our earnings
call in April that a continuance of the broader marine industry
weakness would impact our ability to generate anticipated sales.
Overall, there has not been the anticipated revenue improvement that
would have been required to deliver this year's previously
communicated expected results.
“We continue to optimize cash flow by maintaining a strong
inventory management and expense discipline, while at the same time
providing a much improved in-stock and broad assortment of boating
merchandise and excellent service to our customers. We are continuing
our focus on store execution, one customer at a time, to maximize
sales and pursue market share, even in this challenging environment,
so that when the anticipated cyclical improvement takes place and
boating activity grows again West Marine emerges as an even stronger
leader, as the first choice for the customer.”
