There will be some heavy lifting in Eden Prairie through the remainder of the year.  To begin, while their larger competitors posted strong first quarters, featuring net sales gains, ShopNBC reported a net sales loss of 6.6% for the three months ending May 1, on $125 million in retail sales.  A main culprit — featuring prominently in the call — was the poor performance of the consumer electronics category, whose improvement is now the responsibility of Vice President Rod Ghormley.  (Ghormley joined ShopNBC in March.)  Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of ($4.3) million compared to an Adjusted EBITDA loss of ($6.8) million in the year-ago period, driven by improvements in gross margin.  Overall, the company posted an $11 million loss (compared to a $12 million loss in the prior-year period).

One of the heavy lifts for the company will come from NBC Universal’s plans to sell its roughly 6.5 million shares of VVTV stock, and ValueVision Media’s attendant decision not to renew its trademark licensing agreement with the company.  Accordingly, the brand name ShopNBC will be slowly retired during “customer-feedback-rich” phases, beginning online this summer.  The company expects the roll-out of one from a short list of new names under consideration to be completed by next February, well ahead of the trademark license’s expiration on May 1, 2011. Continue reading »