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View All NewsTrueBlue revenue falls 9% in Q4
TrueBlue Inc. (NYSE: TBI) reported revenue fell 9.3% in its fiscal fourth quarter, which included a 14th week; the decline was 14% on a comparable 13-week basis. However, revenue rose 5% on a comparable-week basis when excluding Amazon, the company’s largest customer.
TrueBlue previously cutbacks in the scope of services it would provide Amazon.
Amazon contributed about $30 million in the fourth quarter of 2016 compared to $175 million in Q4 2015, the company said in a conference call with investors. For the full year 2016, revenue from Amazon fell to $170 million from $350 million in 2015.
| (US$ thousands) | Q4 2016 | Q4 2015 | % growth |
| Revenue | $734,951 | $810,733 | -9.3% |
| Gross profit | $180,887 | $185,004 | -2.2% |
| Gross margin percentage | 24.6% | 22.8% | |
| Net income | $18,087 | $28,168 | -35.8% |
TrueBlue transitioned to three go-to-market brands during the fourth quarter and now reports results in three segments instead of two. Staffing services is divided into two segments:
- PeopleReady: Branch-based staffing business comprised of the former Labor Ready, Spartan Staffing and COP brands
- People Management: Staff Management, Plaintext, Centerline and SIMOS brands, which predominantly operate from customers’ worksites
- PeopleScout: RPO and MSP business. The company had recently announced a realignment in this segment.
Revenue by segment
| (US$ thousands) | Q4 2016 | Q4 2015 | % growth |
| PeopleReady | $431,388 | $436,044 | -1.1% |
| PeopleManagement | $257,848 | $347,688 | -25.8% |
| PeopleScout | $45,715 | $27,001 | 69.3% |
Full-year results
| (US$ thousands) | 2016 | 2015 | % growth |
| Revenue from services | $2,750,640 | $2,695,680 | 2.0% |
| Gross profit | $679,718 | $635,673 | 6.9% |
| Gross margin percentage | 24.7% | 23.6% | |
| Net income/loss | -$15,251 | $71,247 | NM |
Quote
“Our earlier expectation was that revenue trends would worsen during the fourth quarter, given the strong prior year performance in Q4,” director and CEO Steve Cooper said in a conference call with analysts. “However, due to strong momentum across all business segments, and PeopleReady in particular, we exceeded the outlook we provided in October.”
Cooper continued, “We are also pleased to report that comparable monthly organic revenue trends, excluding the loss of revenue from Amazon, showed consistent improvement. The improvement was largely driven by PeopleReady, our branch-based industrial staffing business and was widespread across almost all geographies and across all business sizes including our large national customers.”
Guidance
TrueBlue expects fiscal Q1 revenue will range from $560 million to $575 million.
Share price and market cap
Shares in TrueBlue rose 1.89% to $24.30 in early afternoon trading today. The company had a market cap of $1.00 billion, according to Yahoo.