Hhgregg off to not so solid start

The CEO of hhgregg says his company is off to a “solid start” despite first quarter numbers that clearly show otherwise.

The retailer reported that for the first quarter ended June 30, net sales decreased 6.6% to $441.1 million compared to prior year first quarter. Same storesales decreased 6.3% compared to the prior year first quarter. Revenue for the quarter came in at $441.1 million versus the consensus estimate of $445.99 million. And net loss per diluted share was $0.32 versus net loss per diluted share of $0.36 in the prior year first quarter.

Hhgregg President and CEO Dennis May said: “We were pleased to have a solid start to our fiscal year and to see an immediate impact from our fiscal 2016 initiatives on our financial results, highlighted by generating positive EBITDA for the quarter. Our transformation investments have been focused on both cost cutting efforts and revenue generation. While comps were still negative in the first fiscal quarter, we saw a positive sequential improvement in our sales and traffic trend despite a significant reduction in our advertising expense. Though we were pleased with the traction of the transformation initiatives, we still have a lot of work in front of us.”



Hhgregg currently operates 227 stores in 20 states.