Home Depot soft flooring slows MSLO merchandising growth in Q2

Textiles bright at Macy's

HTT Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 7/30/2012 12:41:49 PM

New York - Lagging sales for its branded soft flooring products at The Home Depot were largely to blame for stunting growth in the merchandising division of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia during the second quarter.

"Overall, our growth was offset by the softness at The Home Depot relative to our expectations, primarily in the soft flooring category," explained Lisa Gersh, president and ceo.

By comparison, merchandising has "a solid quarter overall," lead by several contributors, including JCPenney, "where we continue our early design work as we prepare for the launch of that partnership in the first quarter of 2013."

Also helpful to sales during the period were strong sales performances for the Martha Stewart home office line at Staples, the pet product line at PetSmart, and soft home products at Macy's.

"The Martha Stewart Collection at Macy's had a solid quarter with strength in textiles," the company reported.

Merchandising was the quarter's highlight, with divisional revenues up 12% to $14.5 million from $12.9 million a year ago, and operating income of $10.2 million, up 16% from $8.8 million in the first quarter of 2011.

As expected, MSLO total company results for the quarter, ended June 30, were lackluster. They included:

• A 12.75% decline in total revenues to $47.9 million due to weakness it its publishing and broadcasting segments;
• Operating loss of $2.9 million, compared to a loss of $2.5 million in the prior-year period;
• Net loss per share of 4 cents, a slight improvement of the year-ago loss of 5 cents.