Coldwater Posts Strong Sales Gains Retailer’s Annual Earnings Increased To $7.7 Million

Catalog retailer Coldwater Creek reported extremely strong sales growth Tuesday in its first earnings report after going public.

For the company’s fiscal year ending March 1, Coldwater earned $7.7 million, or 74 cents a share, compared with earnings of $3.8 million, or 37 cents a share, had the company been publicly traded a year ago.

Sales for Coldwater Creek, which concentrate in the months of November and December, nearly doubled from the previous years. Sales from its line of catalogs increased to $143.1 million in the last year from $75.9 million.

In comparison, Coldwater Creek sold about $11 million of clothes and other items during the 1991-1992 shopping year.

“This performance reflects strong customer growth resulting from our continued commitment to superior customer service, our timely investments in infrastructure and the broad appeal of our catalogs and merchandise,” Dennis Pence, president and chief executive for Coldwater, said in the earnings report.

The company is about to open its first retail store outside its Sandpoint headquarters. The store in Jackson Hole, Wyo., is expected to open this quarter, according to the company’s prospectus.

The company’s stock price has taken a wild ride since January. Shares soared from their original price of about $15 to trade around $22 a share, then plummeted to $10 a share. The stock has since rebounded and closed Tuesday up $1.50 at $16.75 a share.

Pence, in the report, said the company now has more than 1.1 million active customers. In 1991-1992, Coldwater had about 247,000 customers.

, DataTimes