UPDATE: STAPLES WON'T ESTIMATE RESULTS; PROFIT DOWN MORE THAN FORCAST

CNNMoney.com

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*




* Subscribe to Fortune
* Make CNNMoney my Homepage
* Add to Favorites

* Home
* Business News
* Markets
* Personal Finance
* Retirement
* Technology
* Luxury
* Small Business
* Fortune

* Video
* My Portfolio
* CNN.com

Companies Economy International Corrections Pre-market Trading After-hours Trading Winners/Losers/Actives Bonds Currencies Commodities World Markets Money Magazine Real Estate Taxes Jobs Ask the Expert Money 101 Autos Mutual Funds Help Desk Loan Center Best Places to Live Ask the Expert Millionaires in the Making Ultimate Guide to Retirement Retirement Calculators Best Funds Ask the Mole Best Places to Retire Personal Tech Big Tech Blog Techland Blog Sectors and Stocks Fortune 500 Techs Tech Talk 100 Best Places to Launch Ultimate Resource Guide Small Biz Makeovers FSB 100 Ask & Answer Fortune 500 Technology Investing Management Rankings Main Create Portfolio Edit Portfolio Create Alerts Edit Alerts
TRADING
CENTER



UPDATE: Staples Won't Estimate Results; Profit Down More Than Forecast
Dow Jones
March 11, 2009: 09:47 AM ET

NEW YORK (Dow Jones) -- Staples Inc.'s fourth-quarter profit dropped 14% as the recession and the worst jobless rate in over a quarter of a century led to lower demand for bigger-ticket items such as computers and furniture, financial results showed Wednesday.

Framingham, Mass.-based Staples (SPLS), the largest retailer of office supplies, also said it's not providing profit and sales forecasts for the first quarter ending in April and for the full fiscal year as it expects weak economic climate to continue throughout the year.

Staples' shares fell 4.7% in pre-market trading.

Net income fell to $286 million, or 40 cents a share, in the three months ended Jan. 31, down from $333.2 million, or 47 cents, earned in the year-earlier fourth quarter.

Quarterly sales increased 16% to $6.17 billion from $5.32 billion. Excluding the impact of Staples' purchase of Corporate Express, total company sales decreased 14% to $4.6 billion.

Profit excluding special items tied to the purchase of Corporate Express would have been 36 cents a share, Staples said.

Analysts, on average, had been looking for a fourth-quarter profit of 41 cents a share, according to FactSet Research.

Like other office-supplies retailers, Staples has been hurt by consumers and businesses cutting back on discretionary purchases and holding off on software and hardware upgrades, analysts said.

Staples will continue to control expenses in the face of uncertain sales, management said.

North American delivery unit sales rose 43% in the latest quarter, to $2.5 billion. Excluding the impact of Corporate Express, sales declined 10% to $1.6 billion, hurt by lower spending per existing customer -- particularly on durable categories such as furniture and technology -- while paper and ink sales increased.

NOTE: the lower per spending per exiting costomer are particularly on the durable categories as such of furniture and technology.

North American retail sales dropped 14% to $2.4 billion. Staples' quarterly comparable-store sales fell 13% because of declines in average order size and customer traffic, as well as lagging demand for computers and accessories, business machines, and furniture.

International sales increased 62% to $1.3 billion, reflecting the impact of Corporate Express acquisition.

Excluding Corporate Express, overseas sales dropped 24% from the year-earlier fourth quarter. Comp-store sales in Europe decreased 10%, hurt also by weakness in average order size and customer traffic.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires
03-11-09 0947ET
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

Top of page

More Markets
Bulls make it 4 for 4
Big banks want to paint it black
Bonds fret over stock market, China
The Hot List
100 best places to start a business
Diesel: The truck stops here
'You're working for gas now'

Top Stories
America's vanishing cars
Bulls make it 4 for 4
Big banks want to paint it black
Obama economy czar: Recovery date unclear
Geithner needs to lure hungry investors
Get a FREE TRIAL Issue!
Cover
Outside the U.S. and
Canada, click here.

*
*
*
*
*
* Privacy Policy

© 2009 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy
Home Portfolio Calculators Contact Us Newsletters Podcasts RSS Mobile Widgets Press Center Site Map User Preferences
Advertise with Us Magazine Customer Service Download Fortune Lists Reprints Career Opportunities Special Sections Conferences Business Leader Council
Live Quotes automatically refresh, but individual equities are delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, and 20 minutes for other exchanges. Market indexes are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET.
* : Time reflects local markets trading time. † - Intraday data delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, and 20 minutes for other exchanges. Disclaimer
Copyright © 2009 BigCharts.com Inc. All rights reserved. Please see our Terms of Use.
MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc.
Intraday data provided by Interactive Data Real-Time Services and subject to the Terms of Use.
Intraday data is at least 20-minutes delayed. All times are ET.
Historical, current end-of-day data, and splits data provided by Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data.
Fundamental data provided by Morningstar, Inc..
SEC Filings data provided by Edgar Online Inc..
Earnings data provided by FactSet CallStreet, LLC.
Home | Contact Us | Advertise with Us | Corrections | Career Opportunities | Press Center | Site Map
RSS | Email Delivery | Portfolio | Podcasts | Mobile | Widgets | User Preferences | Special Sections
Subscribe to Fortune | Magazine Customer Service | Download Fortune Lists | Reprints | Conferences | Business Leader Council