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Dress Barn net sales soar 2% for Q2 2008
28 Feb '08
3 min read
Net earnings for the first six months of fiscal year 2008 decreased to $27.0 million from $44.4 million for the same period of the prior year. Diluted earnings per share for the six month period were $0.42 versus $0.64 per share in the same period of fiscal 2007.
Commentary:
David R. Jaffe, President and Chief Executive Officer stated, "Our second quarter financial results reflect the highly promotional retail environment. Our dressbarn stores' missy customer appears to have pulled back discretionary spending on apparel.
To help drive traffic, dressbarn stores required relatively aggressive promotions in order to bring inventory levels in line. This resulted in a lower average unit price, with the corresponding effect on margin. While these actions obviously impacted our short term financial performance, we were pleased to have reduced inventories to acceptable levels by the end of the quarter.
In our maurices' stores, the tone of our business is much better. We continue to be pleased with maurices' overall increased sales and earnings performance despite the ongoing challenges of the retail environment and the economy."
Mr. Jaffe continued, "Our business today is showing signs of improvement. We are encouraged by recent and positive movement in our sales trends at both concepts. The performance of our new spring merchandise offerings gives us some optimism for a stronger outlook for the Spring season. Additionally, we believe that the earlier Easter this year could help spur earlier Spring selling.
Even so, we are managing our business prudently and will continue to focus on keeping inventory levels clean and on controlling costs. Beyond the short term outlook, which remains a source of some concern due to the retail environment, we continue to believe that we have excellent long-term growth prospects, a strong balance sheet and many opportunities to drive value to our customers and our shareholders."
Fiscal July 2008 Reaffirms Guidance:
The Company reaffirms its recently announced guidance for earnings per diluted share for fiscal 2008 in the range of $1.05 to $1.10. This estimate is based upon various assumptions, including that comparable store sales for the remainder of the year will remain flat.
Commentary:
David R. Jaffe, President and Chief Executive Officer stated, "Our second quarter financial results reflect the highly promotional retail environment. Our dressbarn stores' missy customer appears to have pulled back discretionary spending on apparel.
To help drive traffic, dressbarn stores required relatively aggressive promotions in order to bring inventory levels in line. This resulted in a lower average unit price, with the corresponding effect on margin. While these actions obviously impacted our short term financial performance, we were pleased to have reduced inventories to acceptable levels by the end of the quarter.
In our maurices' stores, the tone of our business is much better. We continue to be pleased with maurices' overall increased sales and earnings performance despite the ongoing challenges of the retail environment and the economy."
Mr. Jaffe continued, "Our business today is showing signs of improvement. We are encouraged by recent and positive movement in our sales trends at both concepts. The performance of our new spring merchandise offerings gives us some optimism for a stronger outlook for the Spring season. Additionally, we believe that the earlier Easter this year could help spur earlier Spring selling.
Even so, we are managing our business prudently and will continue to focus on keeping inventory levels clean and on controlling costs. Beyond the short term outlook, which remains a source of some concern due to the retail environment, we continue to believe that we have excellent long-term growth prospects, a strong balance sheet and many opportunities to drive value to our customers and our shareholders."
Fiscal July 2008 Reaffirms Guidance:
The Company reaffirms its recently announced guidance for earnings per diluted share for fiscal 2008 in the range of $1.05 to $1.10. This estimate is based upon various assumptions, including that comparable store sales for the remainder of the year will remain flat.
Dress Barn Inc
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