Bassett Announces Fiscal First Quarter Results

About this update from Bassett Furniture Industries, Incorporated

[{"type":"text","content":"BASSETT, Va., April 03, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bassett Furniture Industries, Inc. (Nasdaq: BSET) announced today its results of operations for its first quarter ended March 2, 2024. Fiscal 2024 First Quarter Highlights (Dollars in millions) Sales Operating Income (Loss) 1st Qtr Dollar% 1st Qtr% of 1st Qtr% of 2024 2023 ChangeChange 2024 Sales 2023 SalesConsolidated (1) $86.6 $107.7 $(21.1)-19.6% $(2.4)-2.8% $2.7 2.5% Wholesale $54.7 $69.9 $(15.2)-21.7% $6.8 12.4% $9.0 12.9% Retail $53.8 $65.0 $(11.2)-17.2% $(1.6)-3.0% $1.5 2.3% Corporate & Other (2) $1.9 $3.0 $(1.1)-36.7% $(7.6)N/A $(7.8)N/A (1) Our consolidated results include certain intercompany eliminations. See Table 4, “Segment Information” below for an illustration of the effects of these items on our consolidated sales and operating income. (2) Corporate and Other includes the operations of Noa Home Inc. along with the shared Corporate costs that are benefiting both the Wholesale and Retail segments. As we once again compared to the inflated sales of the pandemic period, our consolidated sales dropped by 19.6% (14 weeks vs. 13 weeks) in the first quarter of fiscal 2024 compared to the first quarter of 2023. We do expect easier comparisons starting with our second quarter of 2024. Wholesale and retail orders were more stable and fell by 6.3% and 3.4%, respectively (14 weeks vs. 13 weeks). The final two weeks of January proved to be especially damaging to written sales during the period as we lost the historically strong MLK holiday event due to storms across several regions of the country where we expect to write good business. We produced an operating loss of $2.4 million and a net loss of $1.2 million in the challenging sales environment. Our consolidated gross margin of 55.3% was an all-time high but spending reductions were not enough to generate profitability at the reported level of sales. We continue to explore expense reduction strategies that will not be detrimental to gaining market share in the competitive furniture industry landscape. Inventory levels are stable and are appropriate for the current pace of business. Total headcount in our wholesale segment has been reduced by 26% since the peak of the pandemic booms in 2022. The corporate retail organization is 44% leaner than February 2020, the last month before the world changed. And the balance sheet is we...

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