Sales rose 3% at Courier Corp. in the first quarter ended December 24, but problems in its publishing division led to a slight decline in net income. Total revenue increased to $62.9 million, but earnings fell to $1.5 million from $1.7 million due in part to a $1.5 million charge that Courier attributed to “cost reduction measures” taken in the publishing group.
First-quarter revenue for the publishing segment fell 12%, to $9.5 million, as sales in its Creative Homeowner unit plunged 38% which Courier attributed to depressed demand for home improvement books because of the weak housing market and the greater availability of information online. Sales were down 6% at Dover and down 28% at REA, reflecting the loss of Borders; the bankrupt chain generated $500,000 in sales in last year’s comparable quarter. “Over time, as the market absorbs the former Borders inventory, we expect sales to improve at other bricks-and-mortar retailers. In the meantime, we have already seen healthy growth in online sales—a trend we expect to continue. In addition, we are rapidly converting our physical books into electronic books. By the end of the quarter, over 1,000 titles were available through Apple’s iBookstore, and we are working hard to increase both the number of our e-book titles as well as the number of platforms on which our titles are available,” said chairman James Conway in a statement.
Results were much better in the manufacturing segment where sales rose 6%, to $56 million. Sales were up in all three manufacturing areas: sales to the education market were up 3%, helped by growing demand for customized college textbooks and increased sales of el-hi books; sales to the religious market were up 9%; and sales to the specialty trade market were up 9%.
For the full fiscal year, Courier expects sales of between $273 million and $286 million, an increase of 5% to 10% over fiscal 2011 and earnings per diluted share of between $.75 and $1.05, which compares with our fiscal 2011 earnings of $.89 per diluted share.
