- Borders domestic superstores led these gains, as sales improved 9.8% to $938.7 million.
- Comparable store sales at domestic superstores improved 2.5%. For the year, domestic superstore comp sales grew 1.1%, and we continued to increase market share.
- Our strong focus on books generated equally strong results as domestic Borders superstores achieved a 6% same-store increase in books during the fourth quarter.
- New stores and store remodels boosted sales in the cafe and gift and stationery categories, reinforcing our plan to use these growing and high margin categories to help offset declining music sales trends.
While we still have a lot of work to do, we believe these positive fourth quarter achievements confirm that we're on the right track. We will continue to advance our business plan, using what we've learned to refine remodel efforts, expand our domestic and international presence, deploy increasingly effective promotional programs, extend our "single brand" initiative, and create the best possible shopping experience for our customers.
Per our business plan, we remodeled approximately 100 Borders superstores in the U.S. during fiscal 2005, enhancing the in-store presentation of our core book category, introducing more Seattle's Best Coffee® cafes, and launching new Paperchase® gift and stationery shops. In addition to helping to differentiate our stores, these improvements give shoppers more reasons to visit Borders stores on a regular basis, while concentrating our investments on the fastest-growing and high margin areas of our business.
Customers have responded positively to these efforts, increasing comparable store sales in our key book, cafe, and gift and stationery categories. We will focus a majority of our investments on these successful categories during fiscal 2006, as we plan to remodel up to 100 additional stores to varying degrees. By the 2006 holiday season, approximately half of our domestic superstores will be upgraded, including Paperchase shops, and nearly two-thirds of our stores will include Seattle's Best Coffee cafes.
Applying these same in-store design concepts, we opened 15 new domestic superstores during fiscal 2005. These new locations delivered higher first-year sales productivity than stores opened in recent years. We plan to increase our new store openings in 2006, targeting approximately 35 new U.S. locations by year-end.