After a solid start to the year Finish Line is looking lean and mean with a solid performance in its second quarter.
The sporting goods and footwear retailer posted robust same-store sales growth of 5.1% for the quarter, well ahead of the FactSet consensus of 2.9%. The company announced earlier this year the closure of 150 stores, slimming its fleet as part of a move to cut costs while growing e-commerce.
Finish Line reported the number of stand-alone stores it operates now totals 585, a 5.6% reduction from the same period last year. The company’s store-within-a-store count, including those it operates inside struggling Macy’s locations, fell a slight 0.8% from last year to 391.
“Following a solid start to the year, our comparable store sales accelerated during the second quarter,” said Finish Line CEO Sam Sato.
Soto, who became Finish Line’s CEO earlier this year, also announced that former Finish Line CEO and executive chairman Glenn Lyon would become nonexecutive effective immediately. Lyon, who was initially to leave his executive role at the end of the year, stepped down as Finish Line CEO in February after a mangled warehouse-management system rollout negatively impacted company margins last year.
“With our enhanced supply chain now operating efficiently, our focus shifts to streamlining our organizational structure to optimize productivity, adapt more quickly to market changes and better serve our customers,” said Soto. “I am pleased with how we continue to execute our plan for fiscal 2017 while at the same time taking the necessary steps to position the company for long-term profitable growth.”
Finish Line reported net sales growth of 5.4% for the quarter, up to $509.4 million from $483.1 million during the same period last year. The company maintained its yearly outlook, saying it expects same-store growth in the range of 3-5%, with EPS in the range of $1.50-$1.56.