Sales zoom at Francesca's Holdings in Q1 FY'12

Francesca's Holdings Corporation announced financial results for the fiscal first quarter ended April 28, 2012.

For the fiscal first quarter ended April 28, 2012:

• Net sales increased 48.6% to $61.3 million from $41.3 million in the same prior year period.

• Comparable boutique sales increased by 15.5% following an increase of 14.7% in the same prior year period.

• Gross margin increased to 53.1% compared to 52.4% in the same prior year period primarily as a result of leveraging occupancy costs.

• Income from operations increased 74.1% to $14.7 million compared to $8.4 million in the same prior year period. As a percentage of net sales, income from operations increased to 23.9% compared to 20.4% in the same period last year driven by leverage in selling, general and administrative expenses, in addition to the gross margin expansion. Included in selling, general and administrative expenses was $0.5 million of expenses associated with the follow-on offering of the Company's common stock completed in April 2012.

• Interest expense decreased to $0.3 million compared to $2.0 million in the same prior year period principally due to the use of proceeds from our IPO in July 2011 plus cash flow from operations to reduce the average outstanding loan balance under our revolving credit facility.

• Net income increased 123.1% to $8.7 million compared to $3.9 million in the same prior year period.  Diluted earnings per share doubled to $0.20 based upon 44.7 million weighted average shares outstanding compared to diluted earnings per share of $0.10 based on 41.0 million weighted average shares in the same prior year period.

• At the end of the fiscal first quarter of 2012, the Company operated 327 boutiques in 43 states compared to 249 boutiques in 38 states at the end of the same prior year period.

John De Meritt, President and CEO stated: "Our fiscal year 2012 is off to a strong start as we continue to execute on our differentiated business model. We attribute our continued success to our highly effective broad and shallow merchandising strategy that enables a nimble response to changes in customer demand.

“We are also very pleased with our new boutique performance which proves to be highly successful. Looking ahead, we plan to continue our strong growth by consistently offering our customers great merchandise at an outstanding value, growing our boutique base and investing in the infrastructure needed to support our growth plans."