Third quarter revenue declines - dELiA*s

24 Nov '11

6 min read

dELiA*s, Inc., a direct marketing and retail company comprised of two lifestyle brands primarily targeting teenage girls and young women, announced the results for its third quarter of fiscal 2011.

Walter Killough, Chief Executive Officer, commented, “While we were pleased to see solid performance in most categories during the third quarter, we did miss our sales and margin expectations. The majority of the shortfall was due to fashion misses in key item tops purchased under our previous merchandise strategy.

We are encouraged by early reads on our most recent deliveries as we are seeing positive consumer response to both key items as well as other new products that reflect our go-forward merchandise strategy. In addition, we have better planned promotions for holiday this year which combined with our improved merchandise assortment should lead to improved sales and profitability performance in the fourth quarter.”

Mr. Killough continued, “We are confident that with the initiatives we have underway in merchandising and marketing we will have a strong foundation from which to drive long term growth in sales and profitability.”

Fiscal Third Quarter Results
Total revenue for the third quarter of fiscal 2011 decreased 4.2% to $58.1 million from $60.6 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2010. Revenue from the retail segment decreased 2.7% to $36.2 million, or 62.3% of total revenue. Revenue from the direct segment decreased 6.5% to $21.9 million, or 37.7% of total revenue.

Total gross margin decreased to 32.3% in the third quarter of fiscal 2011, compared to 34.3% in the prior year quarter, predominantly reflecting reduced merchandise margins related to markdowns in the retail segment and the deleveraging of occupancy costs.

Selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses were $23.1 million, or 39.7% of sales, for the third quarter of fiscal 2011 compared to $24.5 million, or 40.3% of sales, in the third quarter of fiscal 2010. The decrease in SG&A expenses in dollars and as a percent of sales reflects selling and overhead expense reductions.

Net loss for the third quarter of fiscal 2011 was $4.4 million, or $0.14 per diluted share, compared to a net loss for the third quarter of fiscal 2010 of $9.7 million, or $0.31 per diluted share. Included in the third quarter of fiscal 2010 was a goodwill impairment charge of $7.6 million, or $0.24 per diluted share.

The provision for income tax expense for the third quarter of fiscal 2011 was $26,000, or $0.00 per diluted share, compared to a benefit for income taxes of $1.7 million, or $0.05 per diluted share, for the prior year period.

Results by Segment
Retail Segment Results
Total revenue for the retail segment for the third quarter of fiscal 2011 decreased 2.7% to $36.2 million from $37.2 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2010. Retail comparable store sales decreased 1.7% for the third quarter of fiscal 2011 compared to a decrease of 0.4% for the third quarter of fiscal 2010.

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