Massive bookselling chain Borders Group, Inc. (NYSE: BGP) reported today that holiday sales for the nine-week period ended Jan. 3 fell to $868.8 million, down 11.7% from a year ago. Same-store sales for the holiday season plunged 14.4%. The retailer said that holiday sales started off slow, but accelerated as the season continued.
Additionally, the bookseller said that CEO George Jones will be replaced by private equity executive Ron Marshall. The new chief executive has previously helmed turnarounds at food distributor Nash Finch Co. and supermarket chain Pathmark Stores Inc. Borders stated that the new appointment will help to "more aggressively drive a turnaround of the company within today's challenging economy."
Borders Group is also getting a new chief financial officer; Mark Bierley will be internally promoted to the position, replacing Ed Wilhelm.
BGP could definitely benefit from Marshall's turnaround prowess. The stock has endured a stomach-churning 52-week plunge of 95.2%, and is currently trading below 50 cents per share. By contrast, competitor Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS) surged more than 9% today after scoring an upgrade from Sell to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Elizabeth Harrow is an analyst and financial writer in the research department at Schaeffer's Investment Research. She is featured in the video series Schaeffer's Daily Q&A on SchaeffersResearch.com.
The week in preview: Focus returns to earnings: Alcoa, Chevron, Family Dollar
Comfort Zone Investing: Survival of the fittest -- letting some banks fail
Three All-American stocks for portfolio fireworks
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-06-2009 @ 4:27AM
Landen K said...
Now you don’t have to experience the hassle of shopping on crowded malls when holiday seasons arrived. With online shopping, you can conveniently get the stuffs you needed in just few mouseclicks. Amazon.com, the online shopping heavyweight has been getting the extra cash this holiday shopping season. Overall retail sales on the whole have been down compared to last years' numbers, more than 20%. As electronics and jewelry sales go downhill, the value of convenience is still indefatigable. Amazon still keeps shoppers from having to go through the hassles of driving to the store, dealing with the traffic, other shoppers, and the breadth of items available dwarfs the paltry selection at most malls. It makes sense that they would clean house. Amazon only had a drop of 1% from last year's holiday take, though most retail sales slumped – jewelry sales this year were down 35% overall. http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2008/12/26/retail-sales-fall-as-amazoncom-pulls-in-extra-cash/
1-08-2009 @ 10:19AM
LK Gardner-Griffie said...
Borders may be affecting change at the corporate level, but it hasn't yet filtered down to the local store level. As an author, I love to browse through bookstores (and always buy too many books while I am there), and since I am currently working on getting my latest novel Misfit McCabe into bookstores, I went to the Borders across the street from where I work during my lunch hour, and the decisions made by the store manager bordered on the absurd, to the point that when I left the store, the line was practically to the door. To read the full story: http://blog.griffieworld.com/2009/01/borders-on-the-slippery-slope/
No one wants to waste their entire lunch hour standing in line when they thought they could pop into the bookstore and make a quick purchase.
LK Gardner-Griffie - http://www.griffieworld.com