More Bouquets for the Flower Biz

The online flower business just keeps coming up roses as a second major
player in the game, 1-800-Flowers.com, followed FTD.com by posting profits
for the quarter ending Dec. 31.

Westbury, N.Y.-based 1-800-Flowers.com reported record
revenues of $162 million for its fiscal 2002 second quarter, ending Dec. 31,
and posted a profit of 3 cents a share fully diluted.

On Tuesday rival FTD.com posted earnings of seven cents per share fully diluted.

1-800-Flowers.com said that for the quarter its online revenues increased 27
percent to $60.5 million and telephone-order revenues increased 18 percent to
$93.6 million. Total revenues of $162.3 million increased about 21 percent
compared with revenues of $134.2 million in the year-ago period.

Net income increased to $1.8 million or 3 cents per share compared with a
loss of $10.5 million or 16 cents per share in the same period last year.
Non-floral gifts represented 62 percent of total sales, up from 56 percent in
the prior year period,

Holiday gifts helped push revenue in the second quarter and helped attract
approximately 1.1 million new customers, the company said.

Going forward, the company said that it anticipates achieving total revenue
growth during the current fiscal third quarter, which ends March 31, of 11
to13 percent to a range of approximately $114 million to $116 million and a
net loss of 2 to 3 cents a share, even though Valentine’s Day falls in the
third period.

“We continue to see a challenging retail economy with somewhat slower
customer demand than we had anticipated,” said Jim McCann, chairman and CEO.