Big 5 achieves first positive comps since Q3 2010

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Big 5 Sporting Goods is seeing the positive effects of its merchandising and marketing strategies, with its first positive quarterly comps increase since the third quarter of 2010. The company reported a same-store sales gain of 1% for its 2012 second quarter ended July 1.



Net sales for the second quarter increased to $226.6 million from net sales of $219.6 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2011. As anticipated, second quarter sales were negatively affected by the calendar shift of the Fourth of July holiday further into the third quarter this year, which resulted in certain holiday-related sales moving from the second quarter to the third quarter.



The company reported that net income for the second quarter was $2.6 million, or 12 cents per diluted share. For the second quarter of fiscal 2011, net income was $3.1 million, or 14 cents per diluted share.



"We are pleased to report that, despite continuing to operate in a challenging macroeconomic environment, our business generated growth in same store sales and merchandise margins and achieved better than expected earnings for the second quarter," said Steven Miller, the company's chairman, president and CEO. "This marked our first quarterly same store sales increase since the third quarter of 2010 and our first quarter of merchandise margin growth since the first quarter of 2011. We believe this positive trending reflects the growing impact of the merchandise and marketing initiatives that we have been implementing over the last several quarters. The improved performance was particularly evident with our softgoods products, as we experienced the strongest quarterly growth in both our apparel and footwear categories since 2006."