1-800-Flowers pushed to loss by severe weather, late Easter, company says

Retailer 1-800-Flowers.com said the shift this year of the Easter holiday into its fiscal fourth quarter, combined with severe winter weather on Valentine's Day, cut its third quarter revenue by 6 percent from a year earlier.

The Carle Place-based florist and gift basket retailer said total net revenue was $179.6 million in the quarter ended March 30.

The company reported a net loss of $1.7 million, or 2 cents a share, compared with a profit of $2.6 million, or 4 cents a share, a year earlier. In 2013 Easter fell in the company's third quarter.

Jim McCann, chief executive, said in a statement a winter storm in much of the country on Valentine's Day was a key factor in the quarterly declines, along with bad weather in January.

"Regarding the Easter shift," he said, "we anticipate capturing all of the top and bottom-line benefits associated with the holiday across all three of our business segments during our current fiscal fourth quarter."

The company said it attracted 675,000 new customers in the quarter and about 1.6 million customers placed orders in the period, of whom 58.4 percent were repeat customers.