Merchandise margin in Costume Express brand improves

28 Sep '07

3 min read

Celebrate Express Inc, a leading online and catalog retailer of celebration products for families reported financial results for its first quarter of fiscal 2008 ended August 31, 2007.

Celebrate Express reported net sales of $17.6 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2008, a decrease of 12% from net sales of $19.9 million during the same period last year. The net loss for the first quarter of fiscal 2008 was ($577,000), or ($0.07) per diluted share, compared with a net loss of ($326,000), or ($0.04) per diluted share, in the first quarter of fiscal 2007. Weighted average diluted shares outstanding were 8.0 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2008, compared to 7.8 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2007.

Kevin Green, chief executive officer of Celebrate Express stated, "Despite the uneven sales trends throughout the quarter, we continued to make significant progress in several key strategic areas. Our gross margin percentage increased dramatically from the prior year, continuing the favorable trend as we improved merchandise margins and stabilized our outbound shipping costs."

"We reduced our fulfillment expense to sales ratio despite losing some leverage of the fixed costs while simultaneously improving our accuracy and speed of delivery. Our Costume Express brand revenue increased 17% from the prior year as we looked to capture sales earlier in the season, before traditional retailers are carrying Halloween products."

"We also completed the transition of our entire product offering to our consolidated Celebrate Express portal website to enhance our efforts to make Celebrate Express the source for a wide variety of family celebration needs."

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