Tuesday Morning Shares Climb on Stronger Holiday Quarter

Tuesday Morning CEO Steven Becker said the Dallas-based closeout retailer's holiday quarter represented a time when several efforts came together.The chain of 700 stores that sell closeout home goods and gifts nearly doubled its profit from a year ago and posted a 1.9 percent same-store sales increase during the holiday quarter.Tuesday Morning shares shot up, closing at $1.98 up 18 cents, or 10 percent, on Thursday."Day-to-day business in the second quarter was good," Becker said in an interview. "All these initiatives we've been talking about for a long time came together."The company, which was founded in Dallas in 1974 and was a pioneer in the closeout business, is continuing a program to move stores into better spaces as leases come up and rent deals are presented, Becker said. The retailer also renewed its bank line of credit for another five years."It's a good time to find closeout merchandise these days," he said. A challenge has been to find enough of one item to distribute to each of its 700 store inventory to satisfy demand. Rather than disappoint shoppers with too few of each advertised item, now stores aren't all getting the same merchandise. With each shipment, rotating groups of 100 to 200 stores are being stocked well, depending on the size of the closeout purchase, which come from brand manufacturers, other retailers and wholesalers. Imports aren't a big piece of Tuesday Morning's business, because the retailer purchases merchandise domestically, so Chinese tariffs haven't been an issue, Becker said. Tuesday Morning reported net income $16 million, or 35 cents a share, versus a profit of $8.7 million, or 19 cents a share, a year ago. Total sales increased 1.4 percent to $338.4 million.Twitter: @MariaHalkias  Continue reading...