Successories, Aurora, IL, said it expects to report a significant improvement in profitability for its 1999 fiscal year as compared to the 1998 fiscal year just completed. Driving this improvement are reductions in operating expenses related to the implementation of the strategic plan initiatives announced in September 1998, the company said.
“1999 is a transition year in the sense that we are restructuring the company by seeking to divest our golf catalog and converting company-owned stores to franchise owner-operators,” chairman and CEO Mac Anderson said in a statement. “Our emphasis will be on implementing our strategic plan and improving our profitability by continuing to make appropriate cost reductions. For 1999, while we are implementing the plan, we project operating profits in the 4% to 5% range on sales of approximately $52 million. This will represent a significant improvement over 1998, when we absorbed a large amount of costs unrelated to our core business. Once we have completed the restructuring, we anticipate that the company will be generating operating profits in the 11% to 14% range, and we’ll be focusing on growing sales in our two core channels: direct marketing through our catalogs and the Internet and sales to our franchise owner-operators.”
