Cato January sales slightly better than recent trends

08 Feb '08

2 min read

The Cato Corporation reported sales of $56.4 million for the four weeks ended February 2, 2008 as compared to sales of $69.3 million for the five-week period ended February 3, 2007, a decrease of 19%. January 2008 contains four weeks versus five weeks in January 2007. On a comparable four-week basis, total sales for the month increased 1% and comparable store sales decreased 2% from last year.

Sales for fiscal fourth quarter ended February 2, 2008 were $209.4 million as compared to sales of $230.7 million for the fourth quarter ended February 3, 2007, a decrease of 9%. On a comparable 13-week basis, total sales for the quarter decreased 3%, and comparable store sales decreased 6% from last year.

The Company's sales for fiscal 2007 were $834.3 million as compared to fiscal 2006 sales of $862.8 million, a 3% decrease. On a comparable 52-week basis, total sales for the fiscal year ended February 2, 2008 decreased 1% and comparable store sales decreased 4% from last year.

"January sales were slightly better than recent trends due to higher sales of markdown goods. We continue to expect sales to be negatively impacted in the coming months by the difficult retail environment," commented John Cato, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer.

"We will continue to manage our inventory to our current sales levels. We remain comfortable with our previous estimate that fourth quarter results will be at the low end of a range of a loss of ($0.08) to $0.00 versus $.40 last year and the year will be in the range of $0.99 to $1.07 versus $1.62 last year."

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