West Marine, Inc. reported that net sales for the four weeks ended Feb. 22, 2003 were $31.1 million, a 12.6% increase from net sales of $27.6 million for the same period a year ago. Comparable store net sales for the four weeks ended Feb. 22, 2003 decreased 13.9% from the same period a year ago.
Net sales for the eight weeks ended Feb. 22, 2003 were $55.6 million, an increase of 11.6% from net sales of $49.8 million for the same period a year ago. Comparable store net sales for the latest eight weeks decreased 10.1% compared to the same period a year ago.
John Edmondson, president and CEO of West Marine, said, “As previously stated, we knew February would be a challenging sales month. The snowstorm over President’s Day weekend on the east coast only added to the softness in sales for the month. We closed a significant number of stores for several days during the storm. Our comparable sales by region were Northeast -26%, Southeast (which includes the Washington, D.C. area) -15%, and West Coast -8%. However, we are very pleased with our gross margin improvement for the month. As a result we remain comfortable with the first quarter consensus estimate of a loss of ($0.23) per share.”
