Retail News ( US ) : West Marine Turns in Comps Growth of 3.3 Percent in 2012

West Marine, Inc. reported net revenues for the fiscal year ended Dec.  29, 2012 were $675.3 million, an increase of 4.9 percent compared to net revenues of $643.4 million for fiscal year 2011. Revenues for the Stores segment were $610.2 million, an increase of $31.4 million, or 5.4 percent, compared to last year.

Comparable store sales grew by 3.3 percent over last year. Port Supply revenues, representing sales to our wholesale customers through our distribution centers, were $26.1 million, a decrease of $1.3 million, or 4.8 percent, compared to last year. Net revenues in our Direct-to-Consumer segment were $38.9 million, an increase of $1.8 million, or 4.7 percent, compared to last year.

Net income for fiscal year 2012 was $15.5 million, or 65 cents per diluted share, compared to fiscal year 2011 net income of $13.5 million, or 58 cents per diluted share, adjusted to exclude the tax benefit of the valuation allowance release last year. Reported diluted EPS for fiscal year 2011 was $1.27.

Fourth quarter results

Net revenues for the fourth quarter increased by $4.9 million, or 4.3 percent, to $118.3 million compared to $113.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2011.

Comparable store sales increased by 2.1 percent. Net loss for the fourth quarter ended Dec.  29, 2012 was $11.1 million, an improvement of $2.9 million when compared to the net loss of $14.0 million for the fourth quarter of 2011.

Total inventory at Dec.  29, 2012 was $194.3 million, a $1.0 million, or 0.5 percent, increase versus the balance at Dec.  31, 2011, and a 2.3 percent increase on an inventory per square foot basis. Inventory turns for 2012 were up 4.6 percent versus last year.

"Our associates stayed focused on providing great service to our customers resulting in a respectable sales growth increase and we were able to manage the business such that we grew pre-tax income nearly three times faster than the top line,” said Matt Hyde, West Marine's CEO. “A year like 2012 reinforces our strategic direction.

At this time, we are introducing a new financial metric for West Marine, Return on Invested Capital ("ROIC"). We believe ROIC is an appropriate measure because it is driven by both the generation of earnings and the responsible management of our assets, and we believe it is closely correlated with creating shareholder value. ROIC is defined as adjusted net income divided by average total capital. Net income is adjusted to normalize our income tax rate, and to exclude interest and fixed rent expense as well as any one-time or unusual items, such as impairment charges and gains or losses on the sale of assets. The exclusions from net income are calculated on an after-tax basis.

Total capital is calculated by adding total debt, operating leases capitalized at eight times annual rent expense, and total stockholders' equity, minus cash and cash equivalents. For fiscal year 2012, our ROIC was 7.9 percent, which compares to 7.6 percent in fiscal year 2011, and 6.9 percent in fiscal 2010. ROIC based on GAAP net income was 7.9 percent, 16.7 percent and 10.0 percent for fiscal years 2012, 2011 and 2010, respectively.

Fiscal 2013 guidance
For fiscal year 2013, net revenues are projected to be in the range of approximately $700 million to $715 million. Pre-tax income is expected to range from approximately $25.5 million to $28.5 million, which represents an increase over 2012 of approximately 4.8 percent to 17.1 percent. Diluted EPS is expected to range from approximately 64 to 71 cents. This guidance is based on expected comparable store sales growth of approximately 2.5 percent to 4.5 percent. We anticipate capital expenditures for fiscal 2013 to be in the range of approximately $25 million to $29 million.
We also want to provide some insight regarding our expectations for the first quarter of 2013. Currently, we are projecting that comparable store sales will be flat to slightly negative, as we experienced a relatively strong first quarter last year which benefitted from, among other things, favorable weather in many markets. In addition, we believe selling, general and administrative expense comparisons will be unfavorable in the first quarter. As a result, although we expect to deliver profit growth for the year, we are projecting that pre-tax loss for the first quarter of 2013 will be unfavorable when compared to that of the corresponding quarter in 2012.

( SportsOneSource Media )