URBN Reports Q4 Sales

The Book Manufacturers’ Institute (BMI) released the November results for its monthly survey on capacity and lead times for soft cover and hard cover books. As the book manufacturing landscape has changed recently, BMI put together the survey to get a better idea of what manufacturers were facing and what publishers should expect. This month held fairly steady on capacities, but showed lead times continuing to decline. According to responses regarding hard cover books, the average manufacturer was running at 82% of their capacity, equal to October. The average lead time for completed hard cover books went down to 59 days from 62 days, based on 16 responses. For soft cover books, capacity usage dropped to 81% from 83%. The average lead time dropped to 38 days from 45 days, based on 20 responses.

Amazon is making a key tool in its fight against counterfeit products more readily usable by brands selling on its platform. The e-tail giant is making Amazon Transparency, its product serialization solution designed to prevent counterfeits from being sold on its site, interoperable with brands’ own product serialization systems. Interoperability will enable brands that already have their own product serialization on their products or packaging to have access to Transparency’s protections without requiring any changes to their existing manufacturing and packaging processes.

Fiscal 2021 Fourth Quarter Results Overview *Total net sales were $204.5 million, an increase of $26.6 million or 14.9%, compared to $177.9 million last year. Total comparable net sales, including both physical stores and e-commerce, increased by 12.5% compared to last year. *Net sales from physical stores were $152.2 million, an increase of $29.6 million or 24.2%, compared to $122.5 million last year. Comparable net sales from physical stores increased by 20.7%. Net sales from stores represented 74.4% of total net sales compared to 68.9% of total net sales last year. The Company ended fiscal 2021 with 241 total stores compared to 238 total stores at the end of fiscal 2020. *Net sales from e-commerce were $52.3 million, a decrease of $(3.1) million or (5.6)% compared to $55.4 million last year. E-commerce net sales represented 25.6% of total net sales compared to 31.1% of total net sales last year. Consumer behavior in 2021 favored stores over e-commerce relative to last year during which stores were more constricted in operating hours and customer occupancy limits than this year. *Gross profit was $70.4 million, an increase of $12.1 million or 20.8%, compared to $58.3 million last year. Gross margin, or gross profit as a percentage of net sales, was 34.4%, an improvement of 170 basis points compared to 32.7% last year. Total buying, distribution and occupancy costs improved by 190 basis points collectively, despite increasing by $1.9 million in total, due to leveraging these costs against higher net sales. Product margins decreased by 20 basis points as a percentage of net sales primarily due to an increase in sales return reserves and less favorable inventory shrink results than last year, the combination of which more than offset a lower markdown rate compared to last year. *Net income was $12.1 million, or $0.38 per diluted share, compared to $8.9 million, or $0.29 per diluted share, last year. Weighted average shares were 31.4 million this year compared to 30.1 million last year.