Coldwater Earnings Jump 58 Percent

Coldwater Creek on Thursday reported a third-quarter fiscal year gross profit increase of almost 58 percent to $39.5 million, compared with gross profits of $25 million a year earlier.

For the first nine months of the fiscal year, gross profits increased 86 percent to $84.4 million.

Third-quarter net income was $4.3 million, or 41 cents per share, on net sales of $77.2 million - far ahead of comparable year-ago totals of $2.8 million pro forma net income, or 34 cents per share, on net sales of $45.3 million.

For the nine months ended Nov. 29, 1997, net income was $6.8 million, or 65 cents per share, on sales of $164.6 million, compared with pro forma net income of $3.6 million, or 44 cents per share, on sales of $84.7 million in nine months of fiscal 1996.

Third-quarter sales increased 70 percent, based on strong performance in the Sandpoint-based mail-order firm’s “Northcountry” catalog, according to Coldwater Creek President and CEO Dennis Pence. The increase also came from higher order volume in the company’s “Spirit of the West” and “Milepost Four” catalogs.

Pence said the new Bed & Bath catalog test-mailed in August also produced favorable results.

Adding to its outlet presence in downtown Sandpoint, Coldwater Creek opened retail locations in Jackson Hole, Wyo., and Seaside, Ore., this year.

A temporary distribution facility will open in early 1998 in the first phase of company expansion into a West Virginia-based East Coast distribution center.

Coldwater Creek has an active catalog customer file of 1.5 million households.

Early Thursday, Coldwater stock jumped $2 to $32.50 on the earnings reports. The stock closed at $29.88. , DataTimes