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Technology Stocks : SHRP: The Sharper Image, Profitable making $ on Internet! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MarieS who wrote (205)	2/4/1999 11:59:00 AM
From: StormRider	Respond to of 353

Sharper Image Reports Record Fourth Quarter and Annual Sales SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 4, 1999--Sharper Image Corp. (Nasdaq/NMS:SHRP - news) today reported an annual sales increase of 12 percent to a record $241.5 million from last year's $215.2 million led by the record fourth quarter sales of $110.5 million. For the fourth quarter, total company sales of $110.5 million were 15 percent higher than the prior year's $95.7 million. Total store sales increased 11 percent, driven by an eight percent increase in comparable store sales. Catalog sales for the fourth quarter increased 25 percent to $36.8 million from last year's $29.4 million including an increase of 243 percent from Internet sales to $3.0 million from last year's $0.9 million. Total company sales for January were $12.1 million, a five percent decrease from last year's $12.8 million. Store sales decreased three percent to $8.1 million from $8.3 million last year, with comparable stores decreasing four percent. Catalog sales of $4.1 million was a 10 percent decrease from the prior year's $4.5 million. Richard Thalheimer, founder, chairman, and chief executive officer stated, ''All areas of our business contributed to the record fourth quarter sales. Our Website, sharperimage.com, the largest and fastest growing segment of our Internet sales, increased fivefold in the fourth quarter. We are especially pleased that over 70 percent of the sharperimage.com purchasers during the fourth quarter were new customers of The Sharper Image.'' Thalheimer continued, ''While the tremendous sell-through of key items in November and December created product shortages in January that adversely impacted the sales results, our January gross margin continued to be strong with a five percentage point improvement from last year.'' Thalheimer concluded, ''We are very pleased with the major contribution of our proprietary Sharper Image Design products to the improved sales and gross margin. Our strategy of developing exclusive Sharper Image Design products has been very successful. As a result of improvement in gross margin and the record fourth quarter sales we feel comfortable with the analyst's earnings estimate of $0.45 per share for the year versus last year's $0.07 per share.'' The record annual sales of $241.5 million for the 12 months ended Jan. 31, 1999 was an increase of 12 percent from last year's $215.2 million. Retail store sales of $162.4 million was a seven percent increase from prior year's $151.6 million, with comparable store sales increasing five percent. Catalog sales increased 24 percent to $79.1 million from last year's $63.6 million including an increase of 202 percent from Internet sales to $4.9 million from last year's $1.6 million. The Sharper Image is a specialty retailer that is nationally and internationally renowned as a leading source of new, innovative, high-quality products that make life easier and more enjoyable. A significant and growing proportion of sales are of proprietary products created by the company's product development group, Sharper Image Design. The company operates 87 stores throughout the United States and mails millions of its award-winning catalogs each month. Additionally, the company's products may be purchased on-line via its Internet catalog at sharperimage.com. This release contains certain forward-looking statements regarding the company's expected performance for future periods, and actual results for such periods may materially differ. Such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including risks of changing market conditions in the overall economy and the retail industry, consumer demand, the opening of new stores, actual advertising expenditures by the company, the success of the company's advertising and merchandising strategy, availability of products, and other factors detailed from time to time in the company's annual and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.