Earnings Call Excerpt
Costco (COST)
December Sales Results Call
January 10, 2008 8:30 am ET
Executives
Bob Nelson – Head of Finance and Investor Relations
Presentation
Bob Nelson
Good morning and thank you for calling. I’m Bob Nelson, Head of Finance and Investor Relations here at Costco. This morning I will review with you our sales results for the five-week retail month of December, which for us started on Monday, December 3rd and ended on Sunday, January 6th.
For comparable sales results, this five-week period is compared to the same five-week period last year; specifically Monday, December 4, 2006 through Sunday, January 7, 2007. So our results are like- like weeks compared to last year.
Before I begin and as usual, let me start by stating that the following discussion will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and that these statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual events, results or performance to differ materially from those indicated by such statements.
These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, domestic and international economic conditions, including exchange rates, the effects of competition and regulation; consumer and small business spending patterns and debt levels; conditions affecting the acquisition, development, ownership or use of real estate; actions of vendors; rising costs associated with employees, including healthcare and workers’ compensation costs; rising costs associated with the acquisition of merchandising, including the direct and indirect effects of the rising cost of petroleum-based products and fuel and energy costs; geopolitical conditions and other risks identified from time to time in the company’s public statements and reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company does not undertake any obligation to update these discussions due to subsequent events or circumstances.
Now let’s get going. With regard to sales, as reported today in our press release, December net sales came in at $7.55 billion for the five weeks ended January 6, 2008 and that’s an increase of 10% from the $6.84 billion in the same five-week period of the prior fiscal year.
For the first 18 weeks of the fiscal year 2008 reporting period ended January 6, 2008, net sales came in at $24.53 billion and that is an increase of 11% from the $22.04 billion reported during the comparable period of the prior year. Comparable sales increases for the five-week retail month of December and the 18 week year-to-date period were as follows.
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