Department store operator Gottschalks Inc has announced that same store sales for the month of May 2006 increased 2.8 percent from the prior year.
Total sales for the month increased 3.3 percent to $48.9 million from $47.4 million in May 2005. On a year-to-date basis, same store sales increased 0.1 percent from the same period of the prior year.
Total sales for the year-to-date period increased 0.5 percent to $192.4 million compared to $191.5 million for the same period of fiscal 2005.
Jim Famalette, President and CEO of Gottschalks, said, "We are very pleased with our solid comparable store sales increase for May. As previously reported, we experienced an up tick in sales following the return to more seasonal Spring weather in our markets in late April. This solid sales trend continued throughout May, reflecting strong performances across all of our apparel categories.”
“Specifically, our best performing merchandise areas were better and moderate women's apparel, shoes and accessories. We also continued to make steady progress in improving our inventory management and ended May with comp store inventory down 3 percent from the same period last year," Jim added.
Gottschalks also announced that Gary Gladding, Executive VP of Merchandising, will retire from the company effective June 30th 2006. The company's three senior merchants will now report directly to Famalette.
Famalette stated, "Gary has been a key member of our management team more than 23 years and has overseen the growth in the merchandising area from $100 million to over $670 million in sales as of last year. We recognize and thank Gary for his many years of dedicated service and wish him all the best in his retirement. I look forward to being more closely involved in the merchandising aspects of our business and working directly with Gottschalks' experienced
merchandising team."
Gottschalks is a regional department store chain, currently operating 62 department stores and 6 specialty apparel stores in six western states, including California (39), Washington (9), Alaska (6), Oregon (3), Nevada (2) and Idaho (3). Gottschalks offers better to moderate brand-name fashion apparel, cosmetics, shoes, accessories and home merchandise.
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