Hippoman's Big And Tall: The Profit And Loss Statement

Take a look at the profit and loss statement, folks.

It's not pretty, is it?

Poor Mr. Hippoman.

Net sales are on the decline ... down 12% vs. 2013. And let's be honest, 2013 wasn't exactly a glorious year, was it?

Gross Margin percentages are reasonably constant, so at least Hippoman has that going for him.

Look at marketing expenses - this represents online marketing and print marketing. The numbers are increasing, suggesting that there is a genuine merchandise productivity issue harming the business.

Pick / Pack / Ship expenses, which also include free shipping, are 10.4% of net sales ... and were 9.9% two years ago, so this isn't a case of a serious ramp-up in promotional activity draining the profit and loss statement.

As one might expect, fixed costs are increasing at an inflationary rate.

So in total, a weak business (4.5% Earnings Before Taxes in 2012) has become an unprofitable business. Is it any wonder that Harold Hippoman wants to understand what is going on here?

Wow.

Tomorrow, we'll start to dig into customer data, trying to understand just what the heck happened in the past year to cause demand to plummet.