Results in Thomas Nelson's second quarter, which ended September 30, showed improvement over a soft first quarter in which both sales and earnings fell compared to the previous year. Sales in the most recent period rose 5.8%, to $62.1 million, and income from continuing operations increased 24.2%, to $4.1 million.
Company chairman Sam Moore said Nelson benefited from a stronger publishing and conference schedule in the second quarter than in the first. Moore said sales were also helped by Nelson's decision "to put more resources behind proven authors," such as Franklin Graham, Charles Stanley, John Eldridge and Max Lucado, whose A Love Worth Giving was Nelson's top seller in the quarter.
Despite the improved performance, Moore was cautious about future results. He said Nelson continues to face soft market conditions, especially in the Christian retail market, where most stores are reporting flat or dipping sales. He also noted that Nelson faces "challenging" sales comparisons of the third quarter to the same period one year ago because of lower shipments to Kmart, now in bankruptcy. For the full year, Moore said that, barring a serious economic slump, Nelson's revenue should be about even with fiscal 2002, although earnings should be up.
For the first six months of fiscal 2003, revenue slipped by less than 1%, to $103.2 million, although income from continuing operations was up 15.8%, to $4.4 million. Publishing revenue was $80.3 million, down from $87.1 million in the first six months of fiscal 2002.
