QKL Stores announced its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2015. Revenue decreased by $2.5 million, or 4.1%, to $58.6 million from $61.1 million for the three months ended September 30, 2014.
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Same store sales represents sales from stores that were opened for at least one year before the beginning of the comparison period, or by January 1, 2014.
Same store (42 stores) sales generated approximately $54.8 million in sales in the third quarter of 2015, a decrease of $4.4 million, or 7.4% compared with $59.2 million in net sales in the third quarter of 2014.
New store sales increased, reflecting the opening of 3 new stores since January 1, 2014. These stores generated approximately $3.8 million in sales in the third quarter of 2015. The number of stores including supermarkets/hypermarkets and department stores at September 30, 2015 was 45 versus 47 at September 30, 2014.
Gross profit, or total revenue minus cost of sales, decreased by $0.5 million, or 4.5%, to $9.8 million, or 16.7% of net sales, in the third quarter of 2015 from $10.3 million, or 16.8% of net sales, in the third quarter of 2014.
The change in gross profit was primarily attributable to a decrease in net sales of $2.5 million and a decrease in cost of sales of $2.0 million in the third quarter of 2015 compared to the third quarter of 2014.
The decrease in gross profit relative to net sales was due to competitions arising from the increasing challenge from the online shopping that have significant pricing pressure on our selling of high margin products.
Selling expenses decreased by $2.5 million, or 19.4%, to $10.5 million, or 18.0% of net sales, in the third quarter of 2015, and $13.1 million, or 21.4% of net sales, in the third quarter of 2014.
In specific, labor costs decreased by $0.3 million or 5.2%, to $5.5 million in the third quarter of 2015 from $5.8 million in the third quarter of 2014.
Promotion expenses decreased by $0.3 million, or 20.0%, to $1.2 million in the third quarter of 2015 from $1.5 million in the third quarter of 2014.
Utilities decreased by $0.2 million, or 11.8%, to $1.5 million in the first quarter of 2015 from $1.7 million in the third quarter of 2014. Preliminary expenses in relation to new store opening was nil and $1.5 million in the third quarter of 2015 and 2014 respectively.
General and administrative expenses decreased by $0.1 million, or 4.0%, to $2.0 million, or 3.3% of net sales, in the third quarter of 2015 from $1.9 million, or 3.3% of net sales, in the third quarter of 2014. There is no significant change to our general and administrative expense.
For the three months ended September 30, 2014, our net loss for the third quarter of 2015 was $3.8 million, or $2.53 per diluted share, from net loss of $5.5 million, or $3.60 per diluted share in the prior year period.
The number of shares used in the computation of diluted EPS was 1,522,326 for the third quarter of 2015 and 2014. ■