Winmark Corp.'s fourth-quarter earnings will take a hit from two soured investments, reducing equity by $2.5 million and chopping the quarter's earnings by 47 cents.
The Plymouth-based company, which reports its fourth quarter earnings on Feb. 27, is a franchiser of used-goods stores such as Play it Again Sports and Once Upon a Child.
Winmark said Friday that it's recording impairment charges to its investments in Tomsten Inc., which owns the Archiver's scrapbooking stores, and a Twin Cities financial services company called BridgeFunds LLC. The impact includes a $1.8 million reduction to the carrying value of Winmark's investment in Archiver's and a $700,000 reduction to the carrying value of Winmark's investment in BridgeFunds, reducing the company's pre-tax income by $2.5 million for the fourth quarter.
Winmark has been taking hits from the two investments for some time, and said Friday that it will no longer have any carrying value for either of these investments.
Winmark supports a string of more than 900 franchise businesses under the brands Plato's Closet, Play It Again Sports, Once Upon A Child and Music Go Round. It said Friday that it has 65 more retail franchises in the pipeline that aren't yet open.
Jennifer Bjorhus • 612-673-4683
