Sales at Educational Development Corp. jumped 157% in June over June 2019, rising to $18 million. The increase made June the largest revenue month in company history, Randall White, CEO of the publisher, said in a conference call discussing EDC results for the first quarter ended May 31, 2020. June marked a second highpoint for EDC—it added 6,000 new sales consultants, reaching 39,000 at-home sales reps in June, another company monthly high.
The record June followed a record first quarter in which EDC bounced back from a bad March to post huge gains in April and May, resulting in a 38.8% revenue increase, to $38.3 million, for the first quarter. Earnings jumped 41.6% over the first quarter of fiscal 2020, to $1.9 million.
The increase was due entirely to EDC's direct sales division, where revenue rose 46.3%, to almost $40 million. The increase offset a 41.6% decline in revenue in its much smaller publishing division, which had sales of $1.3 million. The publishing decline was due to store closures, but White said business started to improve in June.
While the closing of stores hurt EDC’s publishing sales, the shutting of schools helped to lift sales for the direct-to-home division. "Due to the closures of many schools during the quarter, we experienced increased demand for educational materials in homes," White said in a statement. "Our increase in active [at-home sales] consultants and our ability to receive orders online and deliver directly to our customers’ homes resulted in our increased [direct-to-home] revenues during the quarter. We are excited to see this increase in demand for our products continue through the summer and into the fall as parents continue to limit outside activities and look to homeschooling options for the fall semester.”
