CE Sales Down 8% in H.H. Gregg Holiday Quarter, But 4K TV Sales Up
Comparable store consumer electronics sales fell 7.9 percent in h.h. gregg’s holiday quarter, while appliances posted an unexpected 10.4 percent drop in comp sales year over year in what CEO Dennis May called “disappointing" results. Overall revenue fell 11 percent…
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to $593 million, said the company. CE remained the largest segment of h.h. gregg’s sales mix at 46 percent, up from 44 percent in the year-ago quarter. Computers and tablets sales plummeted 35 percent and had 6 percent share, compared with 8 percent last year, said the company. Appliance sales came in below expectations, holding steady at 43 percent of sales mix due to the lack of a free shipping promotion from the retailer, said May. “Our competitors were advertising free delivery and we were not,” May said, which translated to low traffic and sales in the quarter. The company is launching free basic delivery next month as part of an ongoing promotion to “match or beat our competitors” with promotions, including free "instant" delivery, he said. Furniture sales were up 3.3 percent in the quarter, at 6 percent of the sales mix, and the company will continue efforts to increase that business, said May. Despite “industry softness” in CE sales during the quarter, the retailer was “pleased” with 4K TV sales, which were 59 percent of all h.h. gregg TV sales, up from 50 percent in the September quarter, said May. H.h. gregg will continue to focus on the large-screen and 4K segments of the TV category, he said. The overall TV industry was down 5.7 percent in dollars for December, said May, citing NPD figures, after slipping 3 or 4 percent in November. He expects overall industry holiday TV sales to come in at minus 4 percent. On the current quarter's TV business, May predicted “mid-single-digit negative” percentage comp store revenue over the year-ago quarter due to storms and that the Super Bowl is taking place a week later than usual. H.h. gregg stock closed down 7.4 percent to $1.75 Thursday.