West Marine, Inc. reported net revenues for its 2010 fiscal fourth quarter ended Jan. 1, 2011 of $107.3 million, an increase of $3.4 million, or 3.3%, from net revenues of $103.9 million a year ago.
Comparable store sales for the fourth quarter increased 1.6% or $1.3 million. Revenues increased $6.4 million from stores opened during fourth quarter 2009 and fiscal year 2010. However, the impact of stores closed during these same periods effectively reduced revenues by $4.8 million. The majority of the closures occurred in connection with the company’s on-going real estate optimization program to evolve into having fewer, larger stores.
“We are delighted to have finished 2010 with overall sales growth of 5.8% to $623 million in total net revenues,” Geoff Eisenberg, CEO of West Marine. “The revitalization of West Marine during the last few years, in an environment that has been so very challenging for boating, has resulted in both total sales and comparable store growth for six consecutive quarters when you adjust for the calendar shift in 2008 and evaluate the reporting periods so that both 2008 and 2009 are based on the same number of weeks.
“We were quite pleased with our fourth quarter total net sales growth of 3.3%. While unfavorable weather during November and December negatively impacted us in many markets, we experienced noteworthy increases with some of our key strategies, including our new larger store formats, casual and performance apparel initiatives, expansion of our Port Supply wholesale business through our more than 320 West Marine stores, and our increased focus on westmarine.com.
Net revenues in the Stores segment for fiscal fourth quarter of 2010 were $94.0 million, an increase of $3.0 million, or 3.3%, compared to the same period last year. The primary driver of this growth was gains in sales to Port Supply (wholesale) customers through our store locations as part of our ongoing efforts to better serve this group and to leverage our store facilities. Our Port Supply segment revenues from our distribution centers for fiscal fourth quarter of 2010 were $5.6 million, a decrease of $0.1 million, or 1.0%, compared to the same period last year. Net revenues in the Direct Sales segment for fiscal fourth quarter of 2010 were $7.6 million, an increase of $0.4 million, or 5.4%, compared to the same period last year.
Net revenue and comparable store sales growth has taken place for six consecutive quarters after adjusting to remove the impact of the extra week in fiscal 2008 and the calendar shift that occurred in that year versus 2009. For more details, see “Non-GAAP Financial Information” below.
Net revenues for the 52 weeks ended Jan. 1, 2011 were $622.8 million, an increase of $34.4 million, or 5.8%, from net revenues of $588.4 million for the same period a year ago. This increase was primarily due to a comparable store sales increase of 6.3%, or $30.7 million. Stores opened during fourth quarter 2009 and fiscal year 2010 generated $30.4 million in sales; however, stores closed during these same periods effectively reduced net revenues by $25.8 million.
