Economy shift a boon for Nordstrom’s bottom line
The return of in-person events and on-site work led to a sales boom for Nordstrom as it recovers from a pandemic rut, the retail giant said during an earnings call with investors Tuesday.
Nordstrom’s sales grew 19% in the first quarter of the year, compared to the same time in 2021. Nordstrom Rack, the Seattle-based company’s discount chain that had been struggling financially, also saw stronger sales because of the return of in-person shopping and a larger assortment of merchandise.
The increase in brands available at Nordstrom Rack is a big driver of its recovery, though it’s “not back all the way,” Chief Executive Erik Nordstrom said. He also said the Rack is grappling with supply-chain issues.
“There’s still a lot of bumpiness out there in the supply chain. We’re certainly not immune to that,” he said.
Rack’s sales went above the sales forecast by investor firm Morningstar.
It “recorded 10.3% sales growth, just above our 9.5% forecast as management places a higher priority on improving off-price product selection,” a reference to lower-priced and discounted items sold at Rack stores, according to a note from Morningstar analyst David Swartz.
Nordstrom had said last fall that it was “not satisfied at all” with the Rack’s recovery from the pandemic.
The company has 146 more Rack stores than regular Nordstrom stores, but Nordstrom’s 95 mainline stores and online market account for most of the company’s net sales and drive the most growth.
For both brick-and-mortar and websites, Nordstrom’s sales were $2.29 billion. Sales for the Rack business were $1.18 billion. Total sales and credit card revenue for the company was $3.57 billion.
Pfizer to provide vaccines to poorest countries
Pfizer said Wednesday that it will provide nearly two dozen products, including its top-selling COVID-19 vaccine and treatment, at not-for-profit prices in some of the world’s poorest countries.
The drugmaker announced the program at the World Economic Forum’s annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland, and said it was aimed at improving health equity in 45 lower-income countries. Most of the countries are in Africa, but the list also includes Haiti, Syria, Cambodia and North Korea.
The products, which are widely available in the U.S. and the European Union, include 23 medicines and vaccines that treat infectious diseases, some cancers and rare and inflammatory conditions. Company spokeswoman Pam Eisele said only a small number of the medicines and vaccines are currently available in the 45 countries.
New York-based Pfizer will charge only manufacturing costs and “minimal” distribution expenses, Eisele said. It will comply with any sanctions and all other applicable laws.
The drugmaker also plans to provide help with public education, training for health care providers and drug supply management.
“What we discovered through the pandemic was that supply was not enough to resolve the issues that these countries are having,” Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla said Wednesday during a talk at Davos.
He noted that billions of doses of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine, Comirnaty, have been offered for free to low-income countries, mainly through the U.S. government, but those doses can’t be used right now.
Earlier this month, the head of the World Health Organization called on Pfizer to make its COVID-19 treatment more widely available in poorer countries.
Boeing pledges to rebuild safety culture after crashes
In response to the two deadly 737 Max crashes, Boeing’s Chief Aerospace Safety Officer Mike Delaney earlier this week outlined how – beyond specific changes to its design practices and its manufacturing operations – the company’s leadership aims to rebuild and improve its entire safety culture.
Delaney said the new safety program he leads will focus not on looking back but on the future.
It will include enhanced oversight of safety; the use of analytical data from airlines, suppliers and Boeing’s factories to pinpoint risk; encouragement of employees to speak up when they notice safety issues; and partnering with airlines to ensure that the in-service fleet of Boeing jets remains safe.
To succeed, the top-down organizational restructuring Delaney outlined Monday will require buy-in and belief from the entire Boeing workforce.
“We have to move forward,” Delaney said. “And we’ve got to take 140,000 people with us.”
Speaking at Boeing’s Safety Promotion Center in Everett, Washington, designed to remind employees of the weighty responsibilities of their work by highlighting past air accidents, Delaney said engineering teams have done root-cause analysis to figure out what went wrong in the two crashes that killed 346 people and delivered a traumatic shock to the company.
From wire reports