A solid market for the online sale of vitamins and related products helped Vitacost.com Inc. boost its top and bottom line for the first six months of the year.
For the period of January through June, Vitacost.com, No. 160 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, grew net sales by 51.6% to $46.1 million from $30.4 million in the prior year. Vitacost.com also posted net income of $1.7 million for the first six months of the year, compared with a net loss of $401,000 from January through June in 2006.
Net sales and income rose as a result of a growing customer base and higher average tickets, the company says in its latest S1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the first and second quarters, the average ticket for Vitacost.com grew to $77 from $74 in the prior year while the number of customers increased to 482,000 from 333,000.
Sales of Vitacost.com’s proprietary vitamin and diet supplement products, including NSI-branded products, increased by 69.7% to $16.8 million for January through June from $9.9 million a year earlier. Third-party product revenue also increased year over year by 43.8% to $25.6 million from $17.8 million.
Through the first and second quarter, Vitacost.com spent $5 million, or 11% of revenue, on sales and marketing and $5 million on general and administrative expenses. A total of 6% of sales, or $2.9 million, was spent on fulfillment. Vitacost.com filed an updated S1 registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Sept. 18.
Though the company has yet to set the terms of its initial public offering, Vitacost.com would use approximately $12 million to retrofit its 112,000 square foot manufacturing and distribution facility in Lexington, NC, and about $9.5 million on its new Las Vegas distribution facility, and to purchase equipment for the North Carolina plant.
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