CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Belk Inc. on Thursday reported second-quarter net income rose to $17.2 million from $14.9 million in the prior period a year ago, a 15.4 percent increase.
Net income for the quarter ended July 30, excluding noncomparable items, rose 23.3 percent, to $18.5 million from $15 million in the year-ago period.
Net income for the first six months increased $2.5 million, or 6.4 percent, to $41.5 million. Net income excluding noncomparable items increased $3.2 million to $42.6 million.
Sales for the 13-week period increased 12.4 percent, to $602.7 million, against $536.4 million for the prior-year period. The increase was due primarily to a comparable-store sales increase of 2.4 percent during the quarter, $40.2 million in additional sales from the 22 Proffitt’s and 25 McRae’s stores acquired from Saks Inc. in July and sales of $21.4 million from stores opened in the past year.
Sales in the six-month period rose 7.8 percent, to $1.17 billion. The increase was primarily due to a 1.4 percent gain in comp-store sales, $40.2 million in additional sales from the Proffitt’s and McRae’s stores and $42.7 million in sales from new stores.
Tim Belk, chairman and chief executive officer of Belk, said in a statement, “We’re pleased to have achieved a gain in comparable-store sales for the second quarter, particularly considering the strength of our second-quarter sales last year. We also were pleased with the sales results of our new Belk stores opened during the past year. We are looking forward to the integration of the Proffitt’s/McRae’s stores into the Belk organization and anticipate that it will take 18 months to achieve the full effect of this work with some short-term pressure on our profitability in the interim.”
The transaction increases Belk’s store count to 275 and brings sales volume to an estimated $3.1 billion.
Belk also purchased the former McRae’s 174,000-square-foot distribution center facility in Jackson, Miss., for about $20 million. The center will serve about 110 Belk, Proffitt’s and McRae’s department stores within a 300-mile radius of Jackson, will be fully operational by March 2006 and employ more than 200 associates in peak periods.