West Marine Q1 Comps Fall 6.6%; Guidance Lowered

West Marine, Inc. reported that net sales for the fiscal first quarter ended April 2 decreased 2.8% to $125.6 million, compared to net sales of $129.2 million in the year-ago period. Comparable store sales for Q1 decreased 6.6%, compared to strong comparable store sales of 10.2% reported in first quarter last year. First quarter comparable store sales by region were as follows:

                 2005           2004
                 ----           ----
Northeast       (21.9%)         20.6%
Southeast         1.4%           5.8%
Western          (4.7%)          7.5%

Eric Nelson, CFO of West Marine, said, “The start of boating season activity was delayed as cold, wet, winter-like weather continued on both coasts of the United States in March. Unlike last year, many boats in our Northeast region, from the mid-Atlantic up through the northeastern seaboard and across to the Great Lakes, remained in storage.

“We now anticipate our first quarter loss to range from ($0.26) to ($0.27) per share, including one-time charges of approximately ($0.02) per share for CEO hiring costs, compared to a loss of ($0.15) per share for the first quarter last year. Our expected first quarter results are slightly lower than previous guidance, mainly due to reduced volume in our high-margin maintenance category, which was impacted by delayed seasonal boat preparation activity. We will update our 2005 earnings guidance during our conference call on Thursday, April 28.”