Nook sales lift Barnes & Noble through physical sales decline

Barnes & Noble Inc. (BKS) is being carried by its Nook business as physical sales continue to decline. The company reported a $57 million loss on total revenue of $1.4 billion in the recently closed quarter.
Sales through BN.com jumped 36% from a year ago, driven largely by sales of Nook products, related content and accessories. While Nook is up, everything else is down. Store sales dropped 3% to $1 billion.
The Nook business accounted for $277 million in revenue, marking a 140% jump from the year-ago period. Still though, the bulk of Barnes & Noble’s business remains on the physical side and that will continue to drain on the company’s digital aspirations.
“Our strategy of growing market share in the exploding digital content business while maximizing cash flow and EBITDA from our retail operations is paying off,” CEO William Lynch said. “We plan to continue investing in the significant growth areas of our business, and in fiscal 2012, we expect to see leverage as our digital sales growth is projected to exceed the growth of investment spend. Additionally, the return on investment is expected to increase in future years, as readers purchase increasing amounts of digital content on the platform we have built.”