Financial Report

By Elka Malkis, Financial Manager

Sales for the 3rd quarter of Fiscal Year 05/06 were an amazing $9,322,221. This is for the period of January 1, 2006 through March 31, 2006. Sales at the store were up 7% over last year, while at the warehouse they were up a breathtaking 93%. A round of applause and pats on the back for the warehouse, please.

Our Gross Margin for the third quarter was 34.5%. This is another way of saying that for every $100.00 in sales, we paid our suppliers $65.50 and had $34.50 left to pay wages, utilities, taxes, and everything else necessary to run your co-op.

Our Payroll expense was 22.5%, or $2,101,464. That means that in three months, we paid over 1.4 million dollars in wages to our 250 employees, over $500,000 in benefits such as vacation and personal leave, medical and dental insurance, and 401K match, and over $173,000 in payroll taxes and worker's compensation insurance.

Our Building expenses were 2% of Sales, or $184,099. This covers utilities, property taxes, garbage hauling, insurance. Operating expenses were 4.5% of Sales, or $416,765. This is where costs such as repair and maintenance of equipment, supplies, telephone, computers, and credit card fees show up. Administrative expenses such as CPA services, office supplies, and conferences totaled .7% or $67,259. Governance expenses were 1.2%, or $109,237. This is where we post the member discounts ($85,004), Board of Directors and membership expenses. Promotions expense was .8%, or $76,198. This covers the newsletter, the classroom, advertising and outreach.

We paid $90,000 in estimated State and Federal taxes. We ended the quarter with a profit of 4.6% or $430,378.