Business Analytics

Littleton, Mass. – Net income at Dover Saddlery Inc. for the second quarter decreased 26% to $261,000, compared to $355,000 achieved in second quarter 2013. Higher selling, and general and administrative expenses helped cut the net income total.

Dover Saddlery is planning to open four-to-six retail stores in 2014. Until there is greater long-term visibility on sustainable economic conditions and consumer behavior, the company is not providing guidance on other business prospects.

Unprecedented volatility and declining milk volumes caused leading dairy supplier Dean Foods to report a second quarter loss and suspend full year guidance.

Sales increased to 9% to $2.4 billion, but the company reported an adjusted loss of $13 million, or 14 cents a share, compared to a prior year adjusted profit of $24 million, or 26 cents a share.

Corpus Christi, Texas – Susser Holdings Corp. reported net income of $12.3 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2014, compared to a net loss of $4.3 million in the same quarter a year earlier. The elimination of a debt refinancing charge helped bring Susser back to profitability.

Susser plans to open 17 new Stripes convenience stores by the end of the year. The company also is is on track to merge with Dallas-based natural gas and propane company Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) in the third quarter of fiscal 2014.

Phoenix – Sprouts Farmers Market Inc. reported net income of $30.2 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2014, more than double the $12.5 million profit reported in the same quarter a year earlier. The elimination of pre-tax loss on extinguishment of debt of $8.2 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2013 helped boost Sprouts’ net income.

New York - Fairway Group Holdings Corp., the parent company of Fairway Market, shrank its net loss to $9.7 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2015 compared to $27.95 million in the same quarter the prior year. Declining general and administrative expenses, resulting from the elimination of IPO- and consultant-related fees from the first quarter of fiscal 2014, helped reduce net loss.

Gap posted positive comps in July for the four-week period ended August 2, buoyed by sales at Banana Republic; but preliminary second-quarter results show that comparable store sales were flat compared to the same period last year.

Net sales in July increased 5% to $1.17 billion compared with net sales of $1.12 billion for the four-week period ended August 3. For the second quarter, Gap Inc.’s net sales increased 3% to $3.98 billion compared with $3.87 billion for the second quarter last year.

A more cautious consumer led to weaker-than-anticipated traffic at Hibbett in the second quarter, prompting the sporting goods retailer to revise its earnings expectations for the full year.

Net sales for the 13-week period ended August 2 are expected to increase 4.2% to $194 million compared with $186.2 million for the year-ago period. Comparable store sales are expected to increase 0.1% for the quarter.

Central Garden & Pet took a few steps back in the third quarter, posting an 11% sales decrease and a year-over-year decline in income.

Net sales for the three months ended June 28 were $438.0 million, down from $494.1 million in the third quarter of 2013. The decline took place in both the Pet and Garden segments, and it was exacerbated by a $16.9 million charge related to the discontinuance of two garden products.

Office Depot’s is looking to elevate its business performance with a range of new insights and operational capabilities resulting from an expanded relationship with Teradata.

Office Depot had an existing relationship with Teradata, a leading provider of analytic data platforms, marketing applications and related services, but its involvement with the technology leader is expanding at a time when Office Depot is looking to elevate its performance in the wake of last year’s merger with OfficeMax.

Atlanta -- Teradata, the analytic data platforms, marketing applications, and services company, announced that it is working with Office Depot to expand the retailer’s enterprise data warehouse (EDW) with the very latest Teradata platforms and innovation. The new Teradata Active EDW can support the most demanding real-time workloads, with the ability for unlimited concurrent users to run queries against massive data volumes.