Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Anthony Noto - Goldman Sachs.
Megan for Anthony Noto – Goldman Sachs
It's actually Megan in for Anthony. A couple of quick questions. According to our calculations, revenue growth in the Gourmet Food and Gift category was about 7% excluding Fannie Mae. We were just wondering what pressured this and if you had seen a step-up in competition from Amazon due to their grocery and food basket initiative?
Secondly, if you can give us any sense of how much EBITDA that Fannie Mae contributed during the quarter?
Bill Shea
With respect to what we have seen with organic growth during the quarter versus what was contributed by Fannie Mae, we are seeing organic growth at about 6% overall in the quarter. If we back out the Madison brands, that organic growth would be closer to 12%. In that particular category we saw nice growth within the Fannie Mae business. We probably saw 15% plus growth in the Fannie Mae business and we saw very strong growth in the Cheryl&Co. brand as well.
What we had earmarked going into this year that we were going to invest behind the businesses that have the highest operating margins for us. So that was the going to be Fannie Mae, that was going to be Cheryl & Co., that was going to be BloomNet and the 1-800-FLOWERS brand, Popcorn Factory which is in that category, we were looking to drive more bottom line performance on that and not invest behind growth in that category.
Jim McCann
What we are seeing is double-digit growth in all of our core categories. The 1-800-FLOWERS, the consumer business, BloomNet and the gourmet food & gift basket arena, all double-digit growth rates organically.
Megan for Anthony Noto – Goldman Sachs
Okay, and then just any insights into how much EBITDA Fannie Mae is contributing?
Bill Shea
We really don't break that down. What we can tell you is last year and the year prior to us acquiring Fannie Mae, they did approximately $12 million worth of EBITDA for the year ended April. They drive a lot of that EBITDA during this particular quarter, and that has been growing nicely since our ownership.
Megan for Anthony Noto – Goldman Sachs
Thanks.
Operator
Your next question comes from Jeff Stein - KeyBanc Capital Markets.
Jeff Stein - KeyBanc
Good morning, Jim. A question on the home & children's gift business. By my calculation the drop in profitability there cost you guys $0.06 or $0.07 a share in the quarter. So excluding that, it certainly would've been an extraordinary performance. This raises some concern on my part about the outlook for the balance of the year. How important a contributor is home & children's gift to the back half of the year and are you confident that the performance of your other core strategic businesses will be able to continue to offset the weakness you're seeing in home?
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