Electronics Boutique

Electronics Boutique Holdings Corp. (West Chester, Pa.) , the leading global specialty retailer of video games and related products, today announced a 20.5 percent increase in total revenue for its fourth quarter ended Jan. 29, 2005.

Same-store sales increased 3 percent, led by a 22 percent increase in software as well as the launch of the Nintendo DS.

During the quarter, the company opened 108 net new stores.

For the full year, total revenue increased 24.2 percent and the company opened 449 net new stores, increasing the total store count to 1977 as of January 29.

“Fiscal 2005 marked a very successful year for our Company, and this is reflected in our performance across all areas of our business Commenting on the results,” said president and ceo Jeffrey Griffiths. “With respect to our financial performance, robust top line expansion was supported by solid software sales, led by the success of Microsoft’s ‘Halo 2’ and Take Two’s ‘Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas,’ and slightly offset by the industry-wide hardware shortages in the fourth quarter. In addition to driving sales, we made a number of operational improvements to enhance our efficiency and improve margins which contributed to our strong bottom line result.

“We ended fiscal 2005 with 55 percent of our U.S. stores located in strip center locations which, in conjunction with our pre-played offering, puts us in a strong position to serve our value-driven consumers and compete with the mass market merchants. Our international operations, a key point of differentiation for our business, had a great year, and we have extended our global presence so that our non-domestic stores now represent approximately 26 percent of our total outlets. These measures, together with our ability to leverage our leading market position and retail expertise, helped us gain further market share and outperform the industry as a whole.”