Costco Wholesale Corporation Reports July Sales Results

Pearson plc announces the prospective appointment of Andy Bird as its new Chief Executive, starting on 19th October, 2020. It is intended that John Fallon will continue as Chief Executive until that date, when he will step down from the Board and remain as an advisor until the end of the year. Andy is currently a Non-Executive Director at Pearson plc and was appointed to the Board on 1st May, 2020. Andy has had a distinguished career spanning 35 years in the media industry. Most recently he worked for The Walt Disney Company, as Chairman of Walt Disney International, responsible for the company’s businesses outside of the US. After joining in 2004, he led a major expansion of Walt Disney International, transforming the organisation into a digital-first business focused on the diverse needs of consumers around the world.

The four large publicly traded consumer publishers that recently reported their financial results for the quarter ended March 31 were all able to point to some good financial news. HarperCollins had the best results, with sales up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year and profits rising 16.2%. In a conference call discussing results, Susan Panuccio, CFO of HC parent company News Corp, said the sales gains were led by the general and Christian publishing divisions. Backlist titles did particularly well, accounting for 58% of revenue in the quarter, compared to 52% a year ago, Panuccio said. She added that the strong performance of the backlist helped to boost margins. Another important contributor was downloadable audiobooks. The format had strong gains in the quarter, helping to offset softness in e-book sales and leading to a 5% increase in overall digital sales at HC compared to the prior year. The company said that downloadable audio accounted for about 25% of all digital revenue in the recent period. Digital sales represented 22% of consumer revenue for the quarter—the same percentage the format accounted for in the quarter last year. Click Read More below for additional information.

Costco Wholesale Corporation announced its operating results for the second quarter (twelve weeks) and the first 24 weeks of fiscal 2024, ended February 18, 2024. Net sales for the quarter increased 5.7 percent, to $57.33 billion, from $54.24 billion last year. Net sales for the first 24 weeks increased 5.9 percent, to $114.05 billion, from $107.68 billion last year. Net sales for the Company were negatively impacted by approximately one and one-half percent for the quarter and by approximately one-half percent for the first 24 weeks of fiscal 2024 from the shift of the fiscal calendar, as a result of the fifty-third week last year.