Loss widens at Orchard Supply Hardware

San Jose, Calif.-based Orchard Supply Hardware posted deeper losses for its fourth quarter and full year.

For the quarter, the company’s net loss was $33.57 million, compared with a net loss of $7.24 million in the same quarter last year. For the full year, the net loss swelled to $118.38 million, compared with $14.45 million in the previous year. 

Sales for the 89-store hardware and garden stores that focuses on paint, repair and the backyard were $153.09 million in the fourth quarter, up from $141.58 million a year ago. For the full year, sales declined slightly to $657.3 million, down from $660.5 million.

Comparable-store sales on a 52-week basis were down 0.2%.

Still, CEO Mark Baker pointed to signs of “significant progress.”

“We continue to expect comparable store sales growth of 9% to 11% in the first quarter, reflecting our team’s focused efforts during the important spring selling season,” Baker said. “Looking at the balance of the year, we hope to carry this momentum into the second quarter and deliver solid operating results for fiscal 2013.”

So far in 2013, Orchard has opened new stores in Portland and Tigard, Oregon and one in Yorba Linda, Calif., and completed remodels on three locations, which bring Orchard’s total number of neighborhood format stores to 16. Including these store openings, Orchard continues to expect to open at least four new stores and to remodel at least six existing locations, reaching a total of about 20 stores, or more than 20% of the portfolio in the new format, by the end of the year.