Saks Incorporated sales impacted by October hurricanes

07 Nov '05

3 min read

Department store retailer Saks Incorporated announced that for the four weeks ended October 29, 2005 compared to the four weeks ended October 30, 2004, total Company comparable store sales increased 4.6 percent and total sales decreased 10.8 percent. By segment, comparable store sales decreased 0.1 percent for SDSG and increased 10.0 percent for SFAE for the month.

The Company completed the sale of its SDSG Proffitt's/McRae's business to Belk Inc effective Midnight on July 2, 2005. Therefore, Proffitt's/McRae's sales are included in prior year sales and in current year sales through June 2005 (fiscal month ended July 2, 2005). Beginning in July 2005 (fiscal month beginning July 3, 2005), Proffitt's/McRae's sales are excluded from total company and comparable sales.

At SFAE, three days of a 'Double Points' proprietary credit card event were shifted from September last year into October this year, positively affecting October 2005 sales. Management estimates that hurricane activity in the Southeast during the month of October negatively affected SFAE's comparable store sales by approximately 200 basis points for the month.

The Saks Fifth Avenue store in New Orleans suffered substantial damage related to Hurricane Katrina, which struck in late August 2005. The store remains closed indefinitely. Consequently, this location has been removed from the comparable store sales calculation. Revenues for the New Orleans store totaled approximately $4.7 million in October 2004 and approximately $12.3 million for the third quarter of 2004. Third quarter 2005 revenues for this store totaled $3.0 million. Merchandise categories with the best sales performances for SDSG in October were shoes, intimate apparel, junior's apparel, and cosmetics.

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