AnnTaylor Stores Corporation announced its sales results for the month of January 2008 and the full fiscal year 2007. The Company noted that fiscal 2007 represented a 52-week period, while fiscal 2006 represented a 53-week period. As a result, the fiscal 2007 month of January included one less week of sales than did the fiscal 2006 month of January.
Including this impact, net sales for the four-week period ended February 2, 2008 decreased 14.7% to $127.9 million, compared with net sales of $149.9 million for the five-week period ended February 3, 2007, which included approximately $31 million in net sales from the extra week.
By division, net sales for Ann Taylor decreased 26.6% to $44.8 million in January 2008, compared with net sales of $61.0 million in January 2007. For Ann Taylor LOFT, net sales decreased 8.1% to $62.2 million in January 2008, compared with net sales of $67.7 million in January 2007.
Comparable store sales for the four-week period ended February 2, 2008 were even with the four-week period ending January 27, 2007. By division, comparable store sales for Ann Taylor decreased 6.5% in January 2008, and for Ann Taylor LOFT, comparable store sales increased 5.9% in January 2008.
Commenting on the announcement, Ann Taylor President & Chief Executive Officer Kay Krill stated, "As we expected, our results in January continued to be impacted by the macroeconomic slowdown as well as continued soft traffic trends at both divisions. To keep our inventories turning, we were promotionally aggressive during the month, and we are entering fiscal 2008 in a healthy inventory position.