Best Buy Q1 impacted by store closures, Super Bowl

MINNEAPOLIS — Store closures and a shift in this year’s Super Bowl affected Best Buy’s results for the 13-week period ended May 4.

The company reported a net loss of almost 10% for first quarter fiscal 2014, seeing its revenue drop from roughly $10.34 billion the prior year to $9.38 billion. Increased price competition and the closure of 49 large-format stores contributed to the electronics retailer’s decline in revenue. A shift in the Super Bowl, which typically drives TV sales, to the prior quarter and reduced non-core sales also impacted revenue.

Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly said that the retailer is already seeing benefits from its “Renew Blue” restructuring program, which eliminated $175 million during the most recent quarter in annualized costs through efficiency improvements and removal of management layers. Renew Blue has reduced annualized costs by a total of $350 million since its implementation last year, and Joly expects the savings to continue.

“Looking ahead, we remain focused on making progress on our Renew Blue priorities announced last November and reiterated in March,” said Joly. “During the second quarter, we will, in particular, complete the deployment of the Samsung Experience Shops and make significant progress in our efforts to optimize the allocation of our retail floor space to more attractive product categories, so as to increase revenue and operating profit per square foot.”

The company fared better online. It reported domestic online revenue of $498 million, a 7% increase from last year. Excluding the additional week last year, comparable online sales increased 16.3% due to increased traffic and higher conversion across multiple online platforms.