Write-off of bestroute.com affects Hughes fourth quarter
Hughes Supply reported an 11% sales increase but a decline in net income for the fiscal year ended Jan. 26, which it attributed partly to restructuring activities, including the write-off of its Internet venture, bestroute.com.
Hughes Supply (Orlando, Fla.) reported an 11% sales increase but a decline in net income for the fiscal year ended Jan. 26, which it attributed partly to restructuring activities, including the write-off of its Internet venture, bestroute.com.
"We, like so many others in industry and the investment community, succumbed to the lure of dot-com fever," Chairman and CEO David Hughes said in a March 8 teleconference call. "We were concerned that the e-commerce revolution could, through disintermediation, threaten the traditional role of distributors such as ourselves. We viewed e-commerce as both a threat and an opportunity to develop sales tools for our customers. If we did nothing, we were at risk in having other players be the winners, but if we could combine Internet technology with new internal systems already developed, we could be a major beneficiary of the e-commerce revolution."