Vitamin Shoppe Q1 EPS Down, Sales Up - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Vitamin Shoppe Inc. (VSI), a multi-channel specialty retailer of nutritional products, posted essentially flat net income of $20.51 million for first quarter 2014, versus last year's $20.8 million. Reported earnings per share were $0.67, lower than $0.68 a year ago. On average, 15 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings per share of $0.68 for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.

However, net sales in the first quarter rose 10.3% to $307.8 million, from $279.1 million in the same period prior year. Analysts estimated revenues of $302.82 million for the quarter. Quarterly sales growth was driven by a 2.3% rise in comparable retail store sales, growth from non-comp stores, including Super Supplements, and a 17.0% growth in e-commerce sales. Super Supplements contributed nearly 2 percentage points to e-commerce growth, the firm added.

Chief Executive of the company stated, "Total comparable sales of 3.6% were positive for the 34th consecutive quarter which highlights the consistency in our industry and our business model. Our e-commerce sales reported another quarter of double-digit growth."