Business
PriceSmart Announces Fiscal 2021 Second Quarter Operating Results
NET MERCHANDISE SALES GREW 3.1% OPERATING INCOME INCREASED BY 15.9% DILUTED EARNINGS PER SHARE INCREASED BY 8.2% COMPARABLE NET MERCHANDISE SALES GREW 1.1%
About this update from Pricesmart, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"NET MERCHANDISE SALES GREW 3.1%\n OPERATING INCOME INCREASED BY 15.9%\n DILUTED EARNINGS PER SHARE INCREASED BY 8.2%\n COMPARABLE NET MERCHANDISE SALES GREW 1.1%\n\n\nSAN DIEGO, April 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ: PSMT), operator of 47 warehouse clubs in 12 countries and one U.S. territory, today announced its results of operations for the fiscal second quarter of 2021 which ended on February 28, 2021.\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \nComments from Sherry S. Bahrambeygui, Chief Executive Officer:\n\"PriceSmart achieved solid results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2021, with continued focus on strengthening our Company as a trusted part of our members' lives. The quarter started with the grand opening of our new Usaquén Club, our third club in the greater metropolitan area of Bogotá which is located in the heart of a densely populated area. We believe that the Usaquén Club should drive sales growth, provide greater convenience and strengthen our presence in a market that provides significant growth opportunity. In addition, in late February and early March, we launched our first two PriceSmart Pharmacies in Costa Rica. We believe that this incremental membership benefit will be well received and complements our Optical service. We plan to launch several more PriceSmart Pharmacies by the end of the calendar year. Additionally, we continue to invest in our omni-channel efforts to improve service and offer greater convenience to our Members.\n\"Despite our success, the pandemic still weighs on our business in certain markets. Similar to what we have seen in the United States, infection rates increased dramatically in our markets during and after the holiday season. This brought the return of government-mandated club closures, primarily in Panama, but we also experienced club closure days in Colombia and some other Caribbean markets. In total, we had 142 club days lost this quarter versus 51 in the first quarter of fiscal year 2021. We also faced challenges in Trinidad, as our decision to limit U.S. merchandise imports, due to a lack of sufficient U.S. dollar availability for currency exchange purposes, negatively impacted sales. However, we are pursuing avenues to increase the level of imports in support of sales in Trinidad.\n\"Although varying pandemic-related restrictions throughout our markets change almost d...