John Edmondson, CEO of West Marine said, “In our sales release last week, we stated that August sales were lower than expected and that we would be watching sales closely over the Labor Day weekend. Labor Day weekend sales were disappointing and we are now running low single-digit negative comparable store sales month-to-date in September. As we stated previously, it appears that a large number of boats were never put in the water because early and extended poor weather patterns significantly delayed the start of boating season. This will also affect the winterizing season as fewer boats are currently in the water.
“As a result, we now expect sales for the third quarter to range from $189 million to $191 million and earnings per share to range from $0.37 to $0.39. Our guidance for the fourth quarter reflects continued low sales, with expected sales from $125 million to $130 million, and our estimate for fourth quarter loss per share remains the same, ranging from ($0.11) to ($0.09), versus last year's fourth quarter loss of ($0.07) per share. Our revised estimate of earnings per share for the year 2003 ranges from $0.92 to $0.96. Excluding acquisition-related costs incurred during the first quarter of $2.8 million, or $0.09 per share, we estimate our 2003 earnings per share to range from $1.01 to $1.05, compared to $0.97 per share last year.”
