The Sportsman’s Guide expects solid e-commerce gains for 2005

Though it has yet to break out its final year-end and e-commerce sales, The Sportsman’s Guide Inc. already is telling Wall Street that 2005 ended in a successful hunt for more Internet business.

For the year, The Sportsman’s Guide, No. 76 in the Internet Retailer Top 400 Guide to Retail Web Sites, is telling investment bankers, research analysts and others that 2005 total sales will likely increase about 26% to $285 million from $232.5 million in 2004.

More than half of the company’s sales now are generated by e-commerce, which would give The Sportsman’s Guide 2005 web sales of about $142.5 million, a 45% hike from web sales of $97.9 million in 2004, according to an estimate by Internet Retailer`s Top 400 Guide. Much of the e-commerce growth is being driven by The Golf Warehouse, says CEO Gregory R. Binkley. “The results are due to the continued growth of The Sportsman’s Guide and the strong performance of The Golf Warehouse,” he says.