ndigo Reports FY22 Third Quarter Results TORONTO, Feb. 10, 2022 /CNW/ - Indigo Books & Music Inc. (TSX: IDG), Canada's largest book and lifestyle retailer reported financial results for the 13-week period ended January 1, 2022 compared to the 13-week period ended December 26, 2020.
Revenue for the quarter increased $65.3 million or 17.9% to $430.7 million compared to the same period last year, and $47.0 million or 12.2% to pre-pandemic levels (13-week period ended December 28, 2019.) The Company delivered on sales growth despite disruption from the Omicron variant and the reintroduction of severe pandemic restrictions in several key jurisdictions during the three most critical December selling weeks. Prior to these impacts, third-quarter results demonstrated exceptionally strong momentum in both the retail and online channels.
While retail traffic was challenged by the Omicron environment, customers shopped the Company's store network with intent and its print and general merchandise assortment strongly resonated, driving revenues above the same period last year. The combined efforts of its strong assortment and scaled-back promotional strategy lifted the penetration of full-priced sales by double-digits, delivering profitable top-line growth. The Company's lifestyle and toy businesses performed remarkably well, driven by the respective success of its proprietary brand program and strategic inventory buys, while its print business benefited from renewed interest in reading, lifting book sales across all categories.
The Company's omnichannel growth to pre-pandemic levels was driven by its online channel, which surged over the past two years and delivered growth of 86.3% compared to the same quarter in fiscal 2020 (13-week period ended December 28, 2019.)
Commenting on the results, CEO Heather Reisman said: "These results demonstrate the success of our efforts to provide a meaningfully curated offering to our customers, the power of our position as the Country's leading bookseller, and the strength of the Indigo brand. We built incredibly strong momentum early in the holiday season and were pleased we could still deliver growth despite being challenged by an unrelenting set of pandemic conditions. We look forward to seeing through this global pandemic to a place where we can fire on all cylinders."
Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $52.0 million compared to $37.8 million for the same period last year, an increase of $14.2 million. This improvement was driven by robust sales and merchandise margin performance. It is worth noting, that these results were achieved against significantly elevated freight and last-mile logistics costs associated with a challenged global supply chain, and against last year's meaningful COVID-19 labour support for home office and field leadership.
Indigo reported net earnings of $45.1 million ($1.62 net earnings per basic common share) compared to net earnings of $30.7 million ($1.11 net earnings per basic common share) last year, an improvement of $14.4 million or 46.9%, for the reasons discussed.
With no outstanding debt and a cash balance of $189.9 million, the Company continues to be well positioned to manage through any further uncertainty stemming from COVID-19.