Online flower and gift company 1-800-FLOWERS.COM is downsizing its fiscal second quarter revenue based on lower-than-expected holiday sales. Sales were up, just not as high as the company thought.
The Westbury, NY-based company said although sales were up by 20 percent during its important holiday selling season, which is part of its fiscal second quarter, revenues came in at $197 million, about $1 million below expectations.
Overall, the company said it expects to report online sales growth of 25 percent to approximately $75 million compared with $60.5 million in the same period last year.
It expects telephone sales to be up by 22 percent to about $114 million compared with $93.6 million a year ago. And overall, it expects to earn about 15 cents per share compared to 3 cents per share in earnings from the prior year.
Jim McCann, CEO of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, said the company felt the impact of weaker consumer and corporate demand during the end-of-year holiday shopping season, and held off on deep discounting that typically follows holiday sales periods.
McCann said the outlook for the year is clouded by unclear economic conditions, which it expects to create even more cautious spending by consumers. As a result, the online flower and gift-seller is expecting revenue growth to be about the same as its fiscal 2002 year, between 7 percent and 9 percent.