Right Start’s Earnings Dip 9% From Year Earlier

The Right Start Inc., a Westlake Village mail-order marketer of upscale children’s items, said its fiscal second-quarter net income dipped 9% to $266,000 from $292,000 a year earlier despite a 44% jump in revenues, to $6.55 million from $4.56 million.

For the six months that ended Nov. 27, profits rose 10% to $685,000 from $621,000 a year earlier. Sales rose 56% to $15 million from $9.6 million.

Stan Fridstein, president of The Right Start, attributed the lower second-quarter earnings in part to lower response rates to its mail-order catalogues.

Fridstein also said the company is exploring acquisitions of other mail-order companies that have suffered under the recession and higher postal rates.