Drugstore.com reports earnings for Q3 2008

BELLEVUE, Wash. Drugstore.com on Wednesday reported net sales of $87.8 million for the quarter ending Sept. 28, up 8.5 percent year-over-year, driven by over-the-counter order growth, and a net loss of $3.6 million, or $0.04 per share.

“We posted a solid third quarter, with strong beauty growth, record gross margins and adjusted EBITDA improvement of 76 percent over the prior-year period to surpass $3.6 million,”Dawn Lepore, chief executive officer and chairman of Drugstore.com said. “Overall beauty revenues increased over 20 percent from the prior-year period, aided by 32 percent growth in our Beauty.com business. Importantly, we are also continuing to see the benefits from our focus on our profitability initiatives as OTC margins improved 230 basis points to 31.6 percent year-over-year.”

According to the click-and-ship retailer, core OTC revenues grew by 12.2 percent to $60.8 million in the quarter. OTC net sales grew by approximately 12.1 percent to $61.2 million.

Drugstore.com served approximately 325,000 new customers during the quarter, up approximately 6 percent over the same period in the prior year. The company is approximately 600,000 new customers away from reaching the 10-million customers served mark, the company noted.