The Sportsman’s Guide, South St. Paul, MN, reports a loss for its third quarter of approximately $1 million. The quarter ended Oct. 3, 1999.
The outdoors cataloger and Internet marketer said that despite higher levels of sales–expected to exceed $34 million for the three-month period–and Internet sales that will approach 10% of total sales for the quarter, sales still fell short of management’s projections. The company reported net sales of $30.4 million and net earnings of $212,000 for the third quarter of 1998.
“Among the reasons for the shortfall in our current quarter are lower than anticipated customer response rates and higher costs due to higher than normal levels of backorders,” said Gary Olen, chairman and CEO in a statement. Customer response rates were affected by an unusually high percentage of catalogs undelivered by the post office in the period, according to the statement, and what seems to be general and widespread weakness throughout the mail order industry possibly due in part to unusual weather during the past three months.
Internet sales, for the quarter, however, account for nearly 10% of total sales–a goal the company did not expect to reach for another quarter.
In other news, the company has launched three new catalogs on the company’s Web site, (http://www.sportsmansguide.com). The catalogs, Upland Game, Waterfowl Hunting and Fishing only exist online. They are promoted through America Online through a pact with AOL.
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