Dress Barn reaffirms earnings outlook for fiscal 2007

01 Mar '07

3 min read

Dress Barn Inc reported sales and earnings results for its fiscal second quarter ended January 27, 2007.

Fiscal Second Quarter Results:
Net sales for the thirteen-week period ended January 27, 2007 increased 9% to a record second quarter of $340.3 million compared to last year's $310.9 million for the same thirteen-week period ended January 28, 2006. Comparable store sales for the fiscal second quarter increased 5%; driven by increases of 5% from its dressbarn stores and 4% from its maurices stores.

Net earnings for the fiscal second quarter ended January 27, 2007 increased 21% to $17.0 million, or $0.24 per diluted share, including approximately $0.03 from the favorable impact of certain one-time tax items. This compares to $14.1 million, or $0.21 per diluted share in the year-ago quarter.

Fiscal Six Months Results:
Net sales for the fiscal six months ended January 27, 2007 increased 11% to $698.8 million compared to $629.8 million reported for the comparable fiscal six-month period ended January 28, 2006. Comparable store sales increased 6% driven by increases of 8% from its dressbarn stores and 3% from its maurices stores.

Net earnings for the fiscal six months ended January 27, 2007 increased 29% to $44.4 million, or $0.64 per diluted share. This compares to $34.5 million, or $0.52 per diluted share for the comparable period last year.

David R. Jaffe, President and Chief Executive Officer of Dress Barn, Inc. commented, "We are pleased to report our twelfth consecutive quarter with comparable store sales increases, and that we experienced another successful holiday selling season. Gross margins were impacted by more aggressive clearance of Fall and Winter merchandise in January, as a result our inventories are current as we head into the Spring selling season."

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