Signet Jewelers Ltd. had sterling third quarter sales, even without the addition of Zale Corp. The addition of Zale led to sales nearly doubling year over year.
“Signet’s sales growth was driven in part by e-commerce sales of $44.8 million, which is an increase of 96.5% due to the addition of Zale this year. But the growth rate was at 27.6% if you exclude our Zale division,” Mark Light, president and CEO, told analysts on the company’s third-quarter earnings call, according to a transcript from Seeking Alpha.
In February, Signet announced it would buy competitor Zale Corp. for about $900 million. Zale operates online shopping sites Zales.com and GordonsJewelers.com, plus about 1,600 stores. Signet operatesabout 2,600 stores and seven e-commerce sites in the U.S., U.K. and Canada.
For the third quarter of fiscal 2015 ended Nov. 1, Signet, No. 162 in the Internet Retailer 2014 Top 500 Guide, reported:
- Online sales of $44.8 million, a 96.5% increase from $22.8 million in the third quarter fiscal 2014. The web sales increase was mainly attributed to the purchase of Zale Corp., the company says.
- Total sales of $1.178 billion, up by 52.7% from $771.4 million. The increase was primarily driven by the addition of the Zale division, which added $331.4 million in sales.
- U.S. comparable-store sales increased 4.2%, while U.K. same-store sales increased 3.7%.
- Net loss was $1.3 million, compared with net income of $33.6 million in the third quarter 2014. Adjusted net income was $16.5 million. The decrease in adjusted net income compared with last year’s net income was driven by this year’s Zale division net loss of $13.2 million and interest expense of $10.6 million related to the Zale acquisition.
E-commerce accounted for 3.8% of total sales for the quarter, compared with 3.0% in the same quarter last year.
For the first nine months of fiscal 2015, Signet did not break out online sales but did report:
- Total sales of $3.46 billion, up by 30.6% from $2.65 billion in the first nine months of fiscal 2014.
- Net income of $153.3 million, down by 20.5% from net income of $192.8 million in the same period last year.