Sales of gourmet food and gifts made up for a slight loss in floral sales during the quarter. The food and gift baskets segment surged 163.5% when factoring in sales from the recently acquired Harry & David brand.

1-800-Flowers.com Inc.’s e-commerce sales climbed 27.2% during the retailer’s fiscal third quarter, which ended March 29 and included the flowers-and-chocolates-intensive Valentine’s Day.

1-800-Flowers, No. 56 in the Internet Retailer 2015 Top 500 Guide, generated $177.9 million online during the quarter, or 76.6% of total Q3 revenue of $232.2 million. Its consumer floral division accounted for 50.3% of revenue. Its gourmet and gift baskets division, which includes such brands as Harry & David, Fannie May Candies and Cheryl’s, accounted for 40.1% of revenue. Its business-to-business-focused BloomNet wire service and corporate sales accounted for 9.6% of revenue.

Valentine’s Day fell on a Saturday this year, and 1-800-Flowers CEO Jim McCann says that led to slightly lower order volume. Sales in fiscal Q3 in the consumer floral segment declined 4.6%, but the gourmet food and gift baskets segment grew 163.5%, factoring in sales generated by the recently acquired Harry & David. While 1-800-Flowers did not break out Harry & David’s contribution to the segment’s sales, McCann said the gourmet foods and gift baskets segment generated top and bottom-line growth during the quarter, even when excluding the impact of Harry & David.

For the quarter ended March 29, 1-800-Flowers.com reported:

  • E-commerce sales of $177.9 million, up 27.2% from $139.9 million in Q3 of fiscal 2014.
  • Total sales of $232.2 million, up 29.3% from $179.6 million.
  • Consumer floral sales of $116.7 million, a 4.6% decrease from $122.3 million.
  • Gourmet food and gift baskets sales of $93.0 million in Q3 of fiscal 2015, up 163.5% from $35.3 million.
  • Net loss of $10.8 million compared with a net loss of $1.7 million in the same quarter last year.
  • 1.9 million consumer orders, of which 815,000, or 42.9%, were new customers.

For the nine months ended March 29, 1-800-Flowers.com reported:

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  • E-commerce sales of $671.0 million, up 67.4% from $400.9 million.
  • Total sales of $893.2 million, up 57.0% from $569.0 million.
  • Consumer floral sales of $290.7 million, a 0.1% decrease from $290.9 million.
  • Gourmet food and gift baskets sales of $253.8 million in the first nine months of fiscal 2015, up 187.4% from $88.3 million. This figure includes revenue  from Harry & David, the food and gifts retailer 1-800-Flowers acquired last fall, and is adjusted for the impact of a Thanksgiving Day warehouse fire that destroyed a Fannie May warehouse and distribution center.
  • Net income of $30.1 million compared with a net income of $11.6 million for the first nine months of fiscal 2014, a 159.5% increase.

1-800-Flowers says it anticipates more than $1.1 billion in fiscal 2015 revenue. The e-retailer’s sales growth, due in part to its acquisition of Harry & David last year, helped move it up nine positions in the newly release 2015 Top 500 Guide, to No. 56 from No. 65.

1-800 Flowers president Christopher McCann will deliver the June 4 keynote presentation at the 2015 Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition in Chicago. The presentation, “Always innovating: how an e-commerce industry leader stays on top” kicks off day two of IRCE and starts at 8:15 a.m.

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