Bebe stores sales for year-to-date ended Jan 4 slips 3.4%

08 Feb '14

3 min read

bebe stores, inc. announced unaudited financial results for the fiscal second quarter and year-to-date period ended January 4, 2014.

For the year-to-date period ending January 4, 2014:

Net sales for the year-to-date period ended January 4, 2014 were $244.1 million, a decrease of 3.4% from $252.6 million for the year-to-date period ended December 29, 2012. Comparable store sales for the year-to-date period ended January 4, 2014 decreased 2.3%.

Net loss for the year-to-date period ended January 4, 2014 was $14.6 million compared to net loss of $7.4 million in the prior year. Loss per share for the year-to-date period ended January 4, 2014 was $0.18 per share on 79.1 million shares outstanding, compared to a net loss of $0.09 per share on 84.2 million shares outstanding in the prior year.

Note that the fiscal 2014 net loss also reflects the continuing impact of maintaining a valuation allowance against deferred tax assets and thus our effective tax rate approximates 0%.

For the second quarter of fiscal 2014:

Net sales were $130.0 million, a decrease of 4.1% from $135.5 million reported for the second quarter a year ago. Comparable store sales for the quarter ended January 4, 2014 decreased 1.9% compared to a decrease of 2.8% in the first quarter of fiscal 2014. The sequential improvement in sales was driven by improvement in both traffic and conversion.

Gross margin decreased to 33.6% compared to 33.9% in the second quarter of fiscal 2013. The decrease in gross margin was primarily due to an increase in markdowns to clear through legacy products as well as heightened promotional activities throughout the holiday season.

SG&A expenses were $49.3 million, or 37.9% of net sales, compared to $53.4 million, or 39.4% of net sales, for the same period in the prior year. The SG&A expenses in the second quarter of fiscal 2014 reflect planned increases in advertising expenses, decreases in contractor and professional fees costs, as well as benefited from a $0.5 million legal settlement.

Net loss for the second quarter of fiscal 2014 was $5.5 million, or $0.07 per share, on 79.1 million shares outstanding compared to net loss of $4.8 million, or $0.06 per share, on 84.1 million shares outstanding for the same period of the prior year. Note that the fiscal 2014 net loss also reflects the continuing impact of maintaining a valuation allowance against deferred tax assets and thus our effective tax rate approximates 0%.

During the quarter ended January 4, 2014, the Company closed two bebe stores and one 2b bebe store.

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