Misses & Kids businesses shrink Talbots Sep Comp store sales

07 Oct '05

3 min read

Nation's leading clothing e-tailer Talbots Inc announced sales for fiscal September, the five weeks ended October 1, 2005, increased 1% to $185.9 million from $184.9 million for the five weeks ended October 2, 2004. Comparable store sales decreased 5.1% for the month.

Year-to-date sales for the thirty-five weeks ended October 1, 2005 increased 8% to $1,175.1 million from $1,084.0 million reported for the thirty-five weeks ended October 2, 2004. Comparable store sales increased 3.4% for the year-to-date period.

Arnold B. Zetcher, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "September comparable store sales results were significantly impacted by a decline in customer traffic in both core Misses and Kids businesses, particularly during the fourth week of the month. That is the week in which they began important mid-season sale; it is also one of the largest-volume weeks of fall season, comparable to Christmas week. As such, it is critical to company's third quarter performance."

"During the month, they conducted their annual benchmarking survey of approximately 2,000 customers and non-customers. From their preliminary findings, they believe that the softness in retail segment in particular is largely due to macro-environmental factors, such as the broad impact from hurricanes Katrina and Rita." continued Zetcher.

"Due to September's sales miss, and therefore a cautious estimate for October, they are lowering their expectation for third quarter earnings per diluted share, resulting in full year 2005 earnings per share in the range of $1.67 to $1.71. This compares to their prior outlook for full year earnings per share of $1.87 and to the $1.70 reported last year, which included a $0.14 tax benefit. Excluding that benefit, their full year expectation would result in at least a 7% gain over last year's $1.56 earnings per share."

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