To: Radim Parchansky who wrote (72471 ) 8/6/1999 7:31:00 PM From: Glenn D. Rudolph Respond to of 164684
1-800-FLOWERS.COM (FLWS) 19 1/2 -1 1/2: No, it isn't close to being an Internet pure-play. But just look at those margins. Shares of "Internet" flower and gift retailer 1-800-FLOWERS.COM wilting on their first day of trading, trading off 7% on the session. The 6 mln share offering priced last night at $21 per share, well above the originally range. But back to those margins. As shown in the attached table, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM sports some of the best margins in the e-tailer category. At 37%, the company's gross margin is almost double that of eToys (ETYS). And unlike the vast majority of online retailers, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM has had a taste of profitability, posting positive EPS for each of the past five years... Perhaps the company's positive bottom-line a result of FLWS having been run as a real-world business, as opposed to an Internet spendthrift. Although Internet sales represent company's fastest growing segment, online revenue accounts for only a small portion of FLWS' top-line. For 1998, telephonic sales accounted for 73.4% of the total, while online sales were just 12.1% of the mix. The remaining 14.5% in sales were fulfilled through company's brick-and-mortar retail stores... Bottom-line results have taking a beating as company has allocated more resources online. For the 9-months ended March, FLWS reported a net loss of $8.7 mln, still teeny by Internet standards. Company expects net losses to continue for the foreseeable future as a result of increased marketing and other promotional expenditures... Private Placement: In May, FLWS completed a private placement of preferred stock, yielding net proceeds of $101.6 million. Companies participating in the deal included Benchmark Capital Partners, SOFTBANK America and LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton... Overhead Supply: At the end of the 180 day lock-up period, there will be 38.6 mln shares eligible for public sale. - DS Company Market-Cap Gross Margin (latest qtr) Price/Sales Ratio Loss (latest qtr) 1-800-FLOWERS.COM (FLWS) $1.2 bln 37% 4.3 $3 mln Amazon.com (AMZN) $14.7 bln 21.4% 14.5 $138 mln eToys Inc. (ETYS) $3.8 bln 19% 101 $21 mln Beyond.com (BYND) $0.70 bln 15.2% 9.9 $22 mln