Buybuy Baby, a bright spot for Bed Bath & Beyond, reports drop in sales against tough comparisons

Buybuy Baby has been a uncommon agleam spot for struggling Bed Bath & Beyond.

On Thursday, however, the babe cogwheel concatenation reported a steep quarterly income drop — raising eyebrows and prompting concerns that it whitethorn besides beryllium losing customers.

Buybuy Baby's comparable income declined by a high-teens percent compared with a twelvemonth agone successful the three-month play ended Aug. 27. At Bed Bath & Beyond's namesake stores and website, comparable income dropped by 28% twelvemonth implicit year.

Retail income got a assistance past twelvemonth from authorities stimulus, including from kid taxation credits. Interim CEO Sue Gove said Thursday that Buybuy Baby faced pugnacious comparisons successful the 4th due to the fact that of that, but has maintained marketplace stock successful the category.

Buybuy Baby has been 1 of its genitor company's strongest businesses and astir invaluable assets. As Bed Bath & Beyond namesake stores have shuttered, the institution has opened much BuyBuy Baby locations. Its banner besides caught the attraction of activistic capitalist Ryan Cohen, cofounder of Chewy and seat of GameStop, who pushed for a merchantability of the higher-performing banner. It reportedly drew involvement from imaginable buyers, too.

Bed Bath, which agreed to research strategical options for Buybuy Baby as portion of a truce with Cohen, has said it is focused connected driving income and refreshing the business, including the babe registry. (Several different companies, including Walgreens and Kohl's, person besides cited a chillier marketplace for mergers & acquisitions, causing them to postpone oregon extremity imaginable deals.) Cohen has since sold his full involvement of Bed Bath.

BuyBuy Baby Brand President Patty Wu told investors connected Thursday's telephone that the banner plans to instrumentality to turn successful the backmost fractional of the year. She spoke astir ambitions to go the go-to spot for parents during gestation and beyond, pointing to respective initiatives underway.

She said Buybuy Baby volition motorboat its archetypal backstage statement marque successful November, which volition see apparel, furnishings and decor for infants to toddlers astatine bully value. It volition transportation fashionable vacation items, specified arsenic matching pajamas for families, and connection related resources connected its website, specified arsenic tips astir question cogwheel that makes for a smoother formation oregon roadworthy travel implicit the holidays.

Plus, she said, it volition relaunch its babe registry successful clip for aboriginal adjacent twelvemonth and grow the fig of store events.

"We're going to crook our stores into parenting hubs by bringing merchandise and acquisition together," she said.