U.S. Stores Are Drag For Future Shop

Sat., Aug. 23, 1997

From Staff And Wire Reports

Future Shop Ltd. is intent on developing its business in the United States even though its U.S. operations have created a big drag on earnings, Chief Financial Officer Gary Patterson said.

“If we are to continue to grow as a company, we have to go someplace other than Canada,” Patterson said Thursday after the company’s annual meeting. “The United States is a very large marketplace and it is similar in laws and culture.”

Burnaby-based Future Shop - Canada’s largest electronics and computer retail chain - currently has 25 of its 101 stores in Washington, Oregon, Montana, Utah and Idaho.

During the year ending March 31, those stores generated slightly more than one quarter of the chain’s $1.5 billion in sales. But they also accounted for $26 million in losses, compared with $31 million in net earnings for the Canadian operations.

As a result, the company’s overall net earnings were only $5 million, or 40 cents a share, down from $17.2 million, or $1.36 a share, the previous year.

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U.S. Stores Are Drag For Future Shop

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