Bassett Furniture's Q1 2025: Navigating Tariffs, Inventory Challenges, and Margin Expectations

These are the key contradictions discussed in Bassett Furniture Industries' latest 2025Q1 earnings call, specifically including: Inventory and Tariffs, Gross Margin Expectations, and Tariff Impact and Strategy:



Operating Profit Improvement:
- Bassett Furniture reported a $4.8 million improvement in operating profit for the first quarter of 2025.
- This improvement was driven by streamlining the cost structure, increased operating efficiency in both wholesale and retail segments, and strategic planning.

Sales Trends:
- Consolidated sales were down by 5.1% for the first quarter, primarily due to a 13-week period compared to last year's 14 weeks.
- On a normalized basis, sales revenue increased by 2.2%. The decline in sales was attributed to a less successful Presidents' Day promotional event and increased competition with discounts and credit promotions.

Inventory and Tariffs:
- Retail inventory increased sequentially due to the introduction of new collections like Copenhagen and Andorra.
- The company is assessing the impact of new tariffs on imported materials, which may necessitate price adjustments in the future.

Dividend and Share Repurchases:
- On March 13, Bassett Furniture's Board of Directors approved a regular quarterly dividend of $0.20 per share.
- The company remains committed to stockholder returns through dividends and opportunistic share repurchases, with $1.7 million spent on dividends and $721,000 on share buybacks in Q1.

E-commerce and Omnichannel Growth:
- Q1 e-commerce sales increased by 36%, driven by higher conversion rates despite no increase in web traffic.
- Investments in bassettfurniture.com are expected to contribute to continued growth in traffic and conversions for the remainder of the year.