ShopHQ Reports 4Q Sales Of $124.6 Million

ShopHQ has released preliminary fiscal fourth-quarter results saying sales were $124.6 million, a $1 million rise from the same year-ago period.

In the quarter the home shopping channel also saw its number of new customers increase about 12% compared to the same prior-year period, reversing a six-year negative growth rate trend.

The network’s net loss is expected to be roughly $3 million, compared to the same prior-year period net loss of $18.4 million. Full-year 2020 net loss is expected to be $13.5 million compared to a net loss of $56.3 million for the same prior-year period.

And here’s a new twist. On Feb. 5 ShopHQ contributed about $3.5 million in inventory to acquire a controlling interest in an online marketplace called TheCloseOut.com. The site offers consumers exclusive and name-brand products at deep discounts. The network is launching a “Closeout Deals” television program to drive customer growth.

“Q4 was another strong quarter for us,” ShopHQ CEO Tim Peterman said in a canned statement, “which creates an even stronger foundation for revenue and profit growth in 2021.”

ShopHQ Sees 5% Sales Decline in Third Quarter, To $109 Million

ShopHQ reported its third-quarter earnings on Tuesday, saying its net sales slipped 5%, to $109 million.

Although revenue dipped, the home shopping network saw the glass as half full because it marked its best year-over-year quarterly net sales performance in more than two years.

“This success was primarily driven by 49 exciting new brands launched so far this year that have generated approximately 21% of our year-to-date net sales, the highest percentage in any nine-month period in the company’s 30-year history,” ShopHQ said in a press release.

In addition, its active customer file grew by 4% year-over-year, driven by a 31% growth in new customers.

Q3 gross margin was 37.4%, a 130-basis point improvement over the same prior-year period. Year-to-date gross margin was 37.2%, a 370-basis point improvement over the same prior-year period.

The network also said that Shaquille “Shaq” O’Neal’s kitchen products launched in over 2,000 Target and Sam’s Club stores in October.

ShopHQ’s third-quarter net loss was $4.7 million, a $2 million improvement over the same prior-year period. Year-to-date net loss was $10.5 million, a $27.4 million improvement over the same prior-year period.

The network’s newest line, J.W. Hulme, premiered on both ShopHQ and ShopBulldogTV during the quarter and exceeded internal sales forecasts.

“Q3 was another strong performance from our entrepreneurial-minded employees and vendors,” ShopHQ CEO Tim Peterman said in a canned statement. “We are passionate about capturing our opportunities, and it shows.”

ShopHQ’s Chief Financial Officer Is Canned, ‘Fixed’ Program Sked Coming

There’s never a dull moment at ShopHQ.

The home shopping network told the SEC Wednesday that it had fired Michael Porter as its senior vice president and chief financial officer, effective last Thursday.

CEO Timothy Peterman will serve as acting principal accounting and financial officer until a successor is appointed.

Porter is expected to continue to serve as a consultant for ShopHQ through Feb. 29, to provide “consultation and assistance as reasonably requested by the company.”

In exchange for his continued service, he will be entitled to continue his “existing compensatory arrangements for the duration of his continued service.”

And see if you can make sense of this press release from ShopHQ today. It appears that March 1 the home shopping channel will institute a fixed schedule with regular weekly shows. And we bet these changes mean more people lost jobs.

iMedia Restructures Organization to Improve ShopHQ On-Air Programming
02/05/2020
Announces Estimated $15 Million Reduction in Annual Costs and CFO Transition

MINNEAPOLIS, Feb. 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — iMedia Brands, Inc. (Nasdaq: IMBI) today announced it completed an organizational restructuring in January 2020 to improve the performance of ShopHQ’s on-air programming and accelerate the company’s return to profitability.

“We are nine months into our turnaround plan,” said Tim Peterman, CEO of iMedia Brands, “and as our culture becomes more entrepreneurial each day, we are finding faster ways to improve our underperforming areas. Our next innovation centers on improving the quality, variety and consistency of our on-air programming. I’m proud of how we implemented three key changes, explained below, to drive innovation for the benefit of our customers, employees, and shareholders.”

Introduced a “fixed” program calendar with weekly static shows – Historically, ShopHQ’s programming strategy attempted to optimize every minute of every hour, which required the organization to constantly change its program calendar. Over time, this program strategy unintentionally drove a pronounced ShopHQ viewership and revenue decline and required a large ShopHQ infrastructure to execute.

We believe television retailing customers prefer predictable routines of watching shows with their favorite hosts, their favorite categories, and at their favorite times of day. Therefore, this past fall/holiday season, ShopHQ tested on-air how best to implement a fixed calendar strategy. Utilizing these learnings, on March 1, 2020, ShopHQ will launch its first-ever “fixed” program calendar.

Aligned merchandising teams and on-air producers – Historically, ShopHQ’s go-to-market process for a product was performed through a series of complicated internal “hand-offs” among six departments that often resulted in inconsistencies, delays and incompleteness.

In January, the company restructured to establish dedicated producing teams for each category that will be led by that category’s merchant GMM — who knows best how their category’s products and stories should be communicated to customers.

Redesigned organization to implement this innovation – In January 2020, management restructured the organization and estimates it removed $15 million in annual costs, including $10.5 million in salaries and benefits. In addition, effective January 30, 2020, Michael Porter, the company’s CFO, has departed the company. Tim Peterman, the company’s CEO, who served as the company’s CFO & COO in 2016 and 2017, has been appointed interim-CFO until such time the company names the new permanent CFO.

ShopHQ’s Third-Quarter Revenue Drops 13%

In other ShopHQ news that we never got wind of last week, the No. 3 home shopping channel reported its third-quarter earnings. Not a pretty picture.

It posted net sales of $115 million, down about 13% from $132 million in the year ago-period.

On the bright side, the network is bleeding less red ink. It lost $6.7 million in the third quarter compared with $9.2 million a year ago.

ShopHQ also boasted that it had launched its male-targeted home shopping channel, the Bulldog Shopping Network. Where it launched, we have no idea.

ShopHQ also said it has struck exclusive relationships with with seven new home and fashion brands: John O’Hurley, Heather Dubrow, Romero Britto, Danny Seo, Heather Hall, Bear Creek Cattle Steaks and Leota Fashions. The network also cited its deal with Shaquille O’Neal, who will be doing a live show.

“I want to explain the significance of our Shaquille O’Neal partnership announced yesterday,” Tim Peterman, CEO of ShopHQ parent iMedia Brands, said in a statement. “Specifically, why we worked so hard to make this happen and why we believe the size of this opportunity is significant.”

Peterman continued, “First and foremost, Shaquille O’Neal is more than a celebrity to iMedia. We know him. We know his work ethic, what kind of partner he will be and how good of an entertainer and entrepreneur he is. That is the ‘why.’ He’s that rare, authentic personality who has grown beyond his achievements to become a pop culture icon.

“iMedia estimates the size of the financial opportunity here to be meaningful. Shaq’s iconic status combined with iMedia’s television and e-commerce retailing expertise create a unique opportunity for iMedia to build a profitable, omni-channel business that iMedia believes could exceed $200 million in annual revenues.”

Then Peterman got into the bad news.

“Regarding our operating results, prior to my arrival in May, the revenue decline for the previous six months was 17.2%,” he said.

“During these past six months, we successfully reduced that decline to 12.7%,” Peterman said. “We accomplished this by launching multiple exciting brands, making important staffing changes, simplifying the promotional framework and introducing an innovative loyalty program. Although the revenue decline did slow, it did not slow as fast as we wanted. The reason was the merchandising effort in the company was more troubled prior to my arrival than previously expected, particularly in our two long-lead businesses of Home and Fashion.”

Here are some other bullet points from the third-quarter results:

* Net sales decline driven by assortment pressure in the long lead time businesses of Home and Fashion & Accessories, which required an over-reliance on the Jewelry & Watches category.

* Subscription sales increased 10%, reflecting strong loyalty within the Beauty & Wellness category.

* Gross margin in the third quarter increased 30 basis points to 36.1% compared to 35.8% in the year-ago quarter. The improvement was driven by a strong discipline to increase rates, which helped to offset slight product mix pressure.

* The return rate for the quarter was 19%, a 90-basis point year-over-year improvement driven by return rate reductions within the Watches, Fashion & Accessories and Consumer Electronics categories.

* Average selling price increased 5% to $66 driven by increases in the Jewelry and Home & Consumer Electronics categories, combined with a mix shift into Jewelry & Watches.

* Operating expenses decreased 15%, or $8.1 million, year-over-year to $47.4 million, reflecting decreases of $9 million in distribution and selling expenses and $800,000 in general and administration expenses, partially offset by a $1.5 million increase related to restructuring costs.

ShopHQ Posts 13% Drop in Sales in 2Q

Playing catch-up again. Late last month iMedia Brands Inc., the new name for newly renamed ShopHQ’s parent company, released its second-quarter results. The home shopping network tried to put a good spin on it, but figures don’t lie.

For the quarter ended Aug. 3, ShopHQ posted net sales of $131.5 million, a roughly 13% decrease year-over-year. But the network pointed out that this was “an improvement compared to the 16% year-over-year decline in the first quarter.”

In fact ShopHQ, once called Evine, also saw a reduction in its net losses, which were $10.2 million, an improvement compared to the $21 million net loss in the first quarter.

However, most earnings reports compare results to the same year-ago quarter, not the prior quarter. So there is that.

Year-to-date, sales are down just over 14%, to $263 million, versus the same year-ago period. And net losses year-to-date are $32.1 million versus just $3 million in losses in the year-ago period, a sizable 930% change. Wow.

“We began this turnaround journey in the first month of this quarter, and I’m proud to report we delivered as promised,” ShopHQ CEO Tim Peterman said in a canned statement.

“Specifically, we just arrested a nine-month, $33 million year-over-year decline in adjusted EBITDA,” he said. “It was a lot of smart, hard work performed by the team in a newly established entrepreneurial culture focused on execution. This is an exciting time for us – I am encouraged about our growth plan and proud of our employees and vendors.”

In its press release the company said, “We expect continued revenue declines in the third and fourth quarters, but at a decreasing year-over-year rate, as we demonstrated in the second quarter compared to the first quarter.”

Here are some other 2Q tidbits:

The top performing category in the quarter was watches, which increased 18.4% year-over-year.

Subscription sales increased 17%, reflecting strong loyalty within the beauty & wellness category.

The return rate for the quarter was 19.8%; an increase of 110 basis points year-over-year driven by return rate increases within the beauty & wellness and fashion & accessories categories.

Gross margin rate declined 140 basis points year-over-year to 36.3%, reflecting mix pressure from our fashion & accessories and beauty & wellness categories, as well as rate pressure in beauty & wellness.

Average selling price increased 24% to $68 driven by increases in the jewelry & watches and beauty categories combined with a mix shift into jewelry & watches.

Evine Drops Jane Fonda and LA Studio

Evine has had some disappointing news in the past few weeks, as first reported by the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

First, the No. 3 home shopping network has dropped its plans to feature a fitness clothing line frpm Jane Fonda. The actress remains a controversial figure because of her activities as “Hanoi Jane” during the Vietnam War, but we thought it was a gutsy move on Evine’s part to add her to its foster.

But Evine has a new honcho, and in an interview with the network’s hometown paper he said the deal with Fonda was dead.

http://www.startribune.com/eden-prairie-based-evine-nixes-deal-with-jane-fonda/512499362/

The new CEO, Tim Peterman, also said Evine decided to pulled the plug on the pact with Fonda after he closed down the network’s relatively new operation in Los Angeles. We were aware Evine had laid off a lot of staff in May, but don’t recall the channel saying it was getting out of LA.

We thought that LA studio/office was a brilliant move, one that would make it easier for the Minnesota shopping channel to attract vendors and talent and set it apart from QVC and HSN.

Home shopping veteran Steve Bryant has already blogged about these actions by Peterman being bonehead moves, and we could not agree more. At least Evine was trying to break out of the home shopping pack, but no so much anymore.

Evine continues to do on-location broadcasts, with one coming from Tucson, recently, for example. We enjoy those.

But why were the models in Arizona glad in cleavage-baring, tiny tops? We know it’s hot out there, but seriously? It raised our eyebrows more than a bit.

Evine Sales Dive 16% in 1Q, Cans 11 Top Execs As Part of Blood Bath, Back To ShopHQ

We bet Evine is glad its first quarter is over. But the execs who got pink slips we’re sure are not happy. Oh, and the name is also going back to ShopHQ. And there’s going to be Shop Bulldog channel for men, and a new Spanish-language one, too.

It’s a lot to digest.

First of all, the No. 3 home shopping network saw its sales nosedive 16% in the first quarter, to $131.5 million versus the prior year. It also suffered a net loss of $21 million, compared to net loss of $3 million in the prior year.

New CEO Tim Peterman, who rejoined the company earlier this month, wasted no time wielding the ax. In one of the worst corporate-speak euphemisms we’ve ever heard, he called the network’s mass layoffs “a cost optimization event” that will eliminate $15 million in annual overhead costs.

“This event included a 20% reduction in non-variable workforce and the permanent elimination of the following 11 senior executive roles: EVP, Product Sourcing & Business Development; EVP, Managing Director of Brand Development; EVP, Chief Human Resources Officer; SVP, Chief Merchandising Officer; SVP, Chief Accounting Officer; VP, Site Merchandising & Customer Analytics; VP, Customer Operations; VP, GMM Home; VP, Planning; VP, Marketing; and VP, GMM Beauty,” Peterman said in a statement.

As for the name change, here we go again.

“In the second quarter, we are planning to change the name of the Evine network back to ShopHQ, which was the name of the network in 2014,” Peterman said. “ShopHQ is easier to recognize for existing television retailing customers, who spend over $9 billion annually with television retailers in U.S. We believe this more intuitive and recognizable name will allow us to better promote to our network and build our customer file again. Our conclusion from the review of the customer impact data related to the change to Evine in 2015, was that it was not positive.”

Peterman made no excuses for the network’s performance, since he wasn’t responsible for it.

“I am excited to rejoin Evine as its new CEO,” Peteman said. “Although we have only been working as a team again for less than a month, we have already identified the primary causes for Evine’s dramatic financial declines these last few quarters and begun to implement focused remediation actions.”

“In terms of our first quarter, 2019 performance, there is no other way to say it – our performance was poor.”

No sh-t.

“In fact, our performance over the past three quarters has significantly missed expectations, and we must perform better for our shareholders and employees,” Peterman said. “Our plan to reverse our recent negative financial trend is clear, exciting and already in motion.”

This has included hiring Jean Sabatier for the new post of executive vice president, chief commerce officer.

“This is an important change expected to re-establish operating fundamentals in pricing, merchandising, programming and planning,” Peterman said. “Jean rejoins the company after having served as SVP, Sales & Product Planning and Programming from 2008 to March 2017. Most recently, Jean has served as a planning and programming consultant in both Germany and Italy to HSE24, an omnichannel retailer.Prior to joining Evine in 2008, Jean spent 11 years at QVC.”

Peterman added, “We are optimizing the current merchandising mix to drive better customer engagement and immediately improve our merchandising margin and shipping margin. We expect this changed mix will lower our variable costs as a percentage of revenue. This is a cornerstone remediation effort that we anticipate will create an increase of 5% to 7% in the airtime mix of our strongest categories of jewelry, beauty, wellness and watches, and a corresponding decrease of 5% to 7% in the airtime mix of our lowest performing categories of home and fashion.”

Peterman also cited the $11 million in additional working capital it’s freceived via Invicta Watch Group investment transaction.

“We secured the services of Eyal Lalo, as our new vice chairman, and we expect he will help us reignite our vendor community with passion while also helping us find and launch new vendors to strengthen our product assortment in all of our merchandising categories,” Peterman said. “This is also a cornerstone of our remediation effort. In the last three years, Evine has not launched a single brand that has exceeded $10 million in annual revenues. Eyal is already making a difference for us in this area.”

Here’s the new interactive media game plan:

Using our “service fee” business model:

Expanding Evine’s existing 3PL service offering. In 2017, Evine launched its 3PL services business unit and signed its first customer, G-III Apparel Group, in 2018 with brands such as Karl Lagerfeld Paris, DKNY and G.H. Bass.

This year we expect to add customers and expand our service offering to provide a “one-stop commerce services offering” targeting brands interested in propelling their growth using our unique combination of assets in television, web and 3PL services. We will also seek to add services in the AdTech space monetized with advertising and fees.

Using our “advertising & eCommerce” business model:

Shop Bulldog: In Q4 of 2019, we expect to rebrand our existing Evine Too channel into a new omnichannel, television shopping brand called Shop Bulldog (“SB”) that will sell and advertise men’s merchandise and services, and the aspirational lifestyles associated with its brands and personalities.

Although SB will be produced in Minnesota at the corporate headquarters like our ShopHQ channel, SB will not be associated with ShopHQ from a branding and creative perspective. Our unfair advantage in executing this strategy is our existing strength in watches and male customers in television retailing.

LaVenta: In Q1 of 2020, we expect to launch a new omnichannel, Spanish language, television shopping brand centered on the Latin culture to sell and advertise merchandise, services and personalities, celebrating aspirational lifestyles.
LaVenta will be produced in Miami by a standalone Latin management team. We also have a compelling unfair advantage to build this new offering – the top three shopping categories in the Latin culture are beauty, watches and jewelry – our core strengths.

Evine Now Really Is The Invicta Network

We were on vaca in AZ when this blockbuster news broke about Evine. Home shoppers have often joked that Evine is the Invicta Network, but little did they know that it was actually going to happen.

Last week financially struggling Evine announced that a group of investors — including Eyal Lalo, CEO of Invicta Watch Group and Tim Peterman, former Evine COO and CFO — were buying $6 million of the network’s stock.

As part of the deal Invicta, a huge Evine vendor, has committed to invest an additional $25 million in product for the home shopping channel.

Peterman was also named Evine’s CEO.

There were a host of other changes detailed in the press release is below.

As former QVC host Steve Bryant pondered, it looks like Invicta got a real steal on Evine. Steve pointed out that there’s been talk that Amazon is looking to have a home shopping channel, and buying Evine would have given them a great base — distribution deals in place already, etc. And we are sure Jeff Bezos has a couple of million dollars he could have spent to buy Evine — that’s chump change to him.

Now we don’t know if you can expect to see even more Invicta watch segments on Evine, but we have the sneaking suspicion that you will.

Evine Secures Multi-Million Dollar Strategic Investment & Exclusivity Commitment from The Invicta Watch Group; Tim Peterman Returns as CEO
05/02/2019
Eyal Lalo, CEO of The Invicta Watch Group, joins Evine’s Board as Vice Chairman; Bob Rosenblatt remains on the Evine Board.

MINNEAPOLIS, May 02, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Evine Live Inc. (NASDAQ:EVLV), a multiplatform interactive video and digital commerce company (evine.com), today announced as a part of its ongoing strategic alternatives review, the execution of several agreements with its largest and most tenured vendor, The Invicta Watch Group (“IWG”). Effective immediately, Evine has:

Sold $6 million of common stock at $0.75 per share, which was priced at a 97% premium to Evine’s closing stock price on the day prior to signing the purchase agreement, to investors (“Investors”) that include, among others, Eyal Lalo, CEO of IWG and Tim Peterman. The investors will also receive five-year warrants to purchase an aggregate of 3.5 million shares of common stock with an exercise price of $1.50 per share, a 295% premium to Evine’s closing stock price on the day prior to signing the purchase agreement;
Secured a $5 million increase in its vendor line for IWG’s family of brands, subject to adjustment from time to time;
Secured IWG’s commitment to invest an additional $25 million in product for Evine in 2019;
Secured a 5-year TV retailing exclusivity commitment from IWG;
Appointed Eyal Lalo, CEO of IWG, as Evine’s Vice Chairman, which is a board role designed to work closely with the CEO in the operations of the business;
Appointed Tim Peterman, Evine’s former COO & CFO, as its new CEO;
Appointed Michael Friedman, a long standing IWG partner, to Evine’s board; and
Announced that Bob Rosenblatt, Evine’s former CEO, will remain on Evine’s Board, where he will assist in the transition and continue to contribute to Evine’s strategy as a Board member.

Bob Rosenblatt, former CEO of Evine, said, “It is exciting to have Tim back to lead Evine on its continuing journey to profitability while utilizing his strong experience and relationships in interactive media and eCommerce to help us chart a compelling growth strategy. In addition, Eyal’s financial commitment as an investor and his leadership as Vice Chairman will help us accelerate our brand building opportunities and strengthen our balance sheet. I couldn’t be more excited as a board member and shareholder to have Tim and Eyal helping lead our organization into its next chapter.”

Tim Peterman, CEO of Evine, said, “I look forward to working with Bob and his team during a collaborative transition. We have a great company today, and I believe we have a very bright future. As Bob knows, our vision for the company remains fundamentally unchanged; I look forward to working with the team and the Board on new growth strategies and expect to have further details on such strategies in the near term.”

Eyal Lalo, Vice Chairman of Evine, said, “Fostering an entrepreneurial, fast-moving culture in which leaders and employees work to produce amazing results will be an important strategic priority for us. Tim and I look forward to playing a more active role in Evine’s future.”

In addition to Eyal Lalo and Michael Friedman joining the Board, Thomas Beers and Mark Holdsworth have resigned from the Board, effective today.

Landel Hobbs, Chairman of Evine, added, “Deepening our relationship with IWG adds value for both the company and its shareholders, especially as Evine continues to chart its course in the role of interactive video commerce in the future of retail, entertainment and media. In addition, Tim’s strong experience and relationships in interactive media and eCommerce will help us continue to chart a compelling growth strategy and the deep expertise that Eyal brings to the Board will further enhance our strategies and execution. On behalf of Evine and the Board, I would also like to express my deep gratitude to Bob Rosenblatt for his leadership during the last three years—we have been made stronger through his work and look forward to his continuing contributions as a member of the Board. Similarly, I extend our thanks to Thomas Beers and Mark Holdsworth for their dedicated and valuable service on our Board.”

Evine will grant performance stock units representing 680,000 shares of Evine common stock to Mr. Peterman on May 2, 2019, that were approved by the human resources and compensation committee of its Board as a material inducement to employment. The equity awards were approved in accordance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635(c)(4). The performance stock unit grant shall vest one-third upon the one year anniversary of the grant date, one-third when the per-share closing price of Evine’s common stock reaches or exceeds an average trading price of $2 for 20 consecutive trading days and Mr. Peterman has been continuously employed for at least one year from the grant date, and the remaining shares when the per-share closing price of Evine’s common stock reaches or exceeds an average trading price of $4 for 20 consecutive trading days and Mr. Peterman has been continuously employed for at least two years after the grant date, and shall otherwise be subject to the terms and conditions of the applicable award agreement.

Evine Promotes Peterman To COO/CFO

Evine has promoted Tim Peterman to chief operating officer/ chief financial officer. He has served as CFO for the network since 2015.

Peterman joined Evine as CFO in 2015.

Prior to Evine, he spent 25 years in operations, interactive media and financial management for public companies such as Scripps Networks Interactive Inc., InteractiveCorp, Synacor and Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Peterman has a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from the University of Kentucky and is a CPA who began his career at KPMG in Chicago.

“Tim’s contributions over the past two years have helped Evine create a solid foundation for profitable growth in the future,” Evine CEO Bob Rosenblatt said in a canned statement.

“His disciplined approach to strengthening our agendas in content distribution, customer solutions and fulfillment will further enhance our customer experience, and his focus on the balance sheet will pave the way for continued profitability improvement. By naming Tim as our Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer, we are investing in the future of Evine.”

Evine Live’s First-Quarter Sales Dip 1 Percent, To $158 Million

It wasn’t exactly a stellar first quarter for Evine Live.

The No. 3 home shopping network posted fiscal first-quarter earnings Wednesday, reporting that net sales were $158 million, down 1 percent compared with the same period last year.

http://hsprod.investis.com/site/irwizard/vvtv/ir.jsp?page=sec_item_new&ipage=10289530&DSEQ=&SEQ=&SQDESC=

That’s not a good showing compared to Evine Live’s rivals. QVC saw a 3 percent sales gain, to $1.3 billion in the first quarter, while HSN was up 10 percent, to $600.5 million.

Mark Bozek

And quite frankly, CEO Mark Bozek had a lot of ‘splaining to do, as Ricky Ricardo used to say in “I Love Lucy.” Bozek doth protest too much, as far as we’re concerned.

This is straight from Evine Live’s press release, from Bozek:

“While we hoped to deliver top line growth of at least 3 percent, several factors including a lower than ideal average selling price in watches, discounting excess textiles inventory on-air and lower shipping revenues worked against us. These factors also contributed to the decrease in our adjusted EBITDA to $2 million.

On the other hand, we’ve launched over a dozen proprietary brands since the beginning of the year, and our new brands are being well received and are driving higher sales per minute than our legacy product.

In addition, our Fashion Day at the end of April was an extraordinary success, and contributed to year-over-year segment growth of 18 percent in the quarter. With time, we expect new, higher margin brands to grow to represent an increasing share of the total, which should lift the top and bottom lines overall. We have a lot of exciting growth initiatives underway and I look forward to sharing more detail about them at our Investor Day on May 28.

Penny Burnett

This was another productive quarter for our team. After an extensive recruiting process, we completed our executive transition plan during the first quarter when we hired our new Chief Financial Officer, Tim Peterman, and our new Chief Merchandising Officer, Penny Burnett.

Tim and Penny are great additions to our team and I couldn’t be more excited to be working with them. Furthermore, just last week we celebrated the official opening of our expanded distribution facility and call center in Bowling Green, Ky. There is still work to do, but when complete it will allow us to deliver faster shipping times and improved customer service.

It has been just under a year since I took over as CEO of a company that needed a cohesive strategic vision. Our success hinges on our commitment to be nimble and continuously test new product launches, merchandising mix and programming platforms.

While new initiatives take time, the progress we are making is clearly reflected in several encouraging first-quarter records – including total customers, average purchase frequency and units shipped. While the balance of 2015 will continue to be a transition period, the heavy lifting has been done and the benefit of changes we have made should be visible in our bottom line by year end.”

Excuses, excuses.

As Bozek said, fashion was Evine Live’s fastest-growing segment, with sales up 18 percent.

Jewelry posted sales growth of 8 percent, followed by beauty with 7 percent gains.

Watches declined 15 percent on less primetime air time allocation. Less air time? Really?

Total active customers on a trailing 12 month basis were 1.4 million, a 2 percent increase.

There were 2.2 million net shipped units, a 17 percent increase.

Average purchase frequency rose to 4.1 units per customer, a 15 jump.

Mobile remained the fastest-growing platform, with sales of $28 million, a 26 percent gain.

Peterman did some brown-nosing for his new boss, as well.

“I’m a long time student and fan of the home shopping industry, and actually worked with Mark at IAC,” he said.

“It is great to see that the Evine Live platform is catching up with the times and being positioned as a relevant competitor in the digital commerce space. Our peers are posting robust margins and we expect that we should be able to as well. Achieving sustainable, positive earnings per share growth is one of my primary goals. And while posting margin improvement is particularly challenging for smaller retail companies given the recent shipping pressures of higher costs and lower margins, we are committed to working more efficiently as an organization to deliver our overall profitability goals.”

Peterman continued, “We have a solid liquidity position that includes $18 million of cash, including restricted cash, and $30 million of availability on our revolving credit facility as of the end of the first quarter. We are focused on improving our existing distribution footprint with thoughtful changes, including a possible second channel similar to our peers.

“Furthermore, by year end, we expect to improve our inventory life cycle by establishing an outlet center close to our Bowling Green distribution center, which will provide an avenue to move merchandise that no longer meets our minimum performance levels for on-air allocation and avoids the situation we experienced this quarter in discounting excess textiles. As a reminder, given our $298 million Federal NOL position, our ability to generate free cash flow will accelerate once we deliver taxable income.”

The company also offered an outlook for the rest of the year, saying that it expects the cumulative effect of its changes to have an impact by the fourth quarter.

“In the meantime, for the next two quarters sales are anticipated to be relatively flat with prior year results, followed by sales growth in the fourth quarter,” the press release said. “The company expects to turn the corner on generating positive net income on a sustainable quarterly basis in the fourth quarter.