Christopher & Banks Corp. said late Thursday that improvements in marketing, merchandising and expense management helped it significantly reduce its fourth-quarter net loss and begin to generate same-store sales increases.
As a result, the women’s apparel retailer beat Wall Street expectations, sending its shares up more than 5 percent in after-hours trading.
For the three months ended Feb. 27, the Minneapolis-based company recorded a net loss of $6.4 million, or 18 cents a diluted share, compared with a year-ago loss of $28.8 million, or 82 cents a share. Excluding a charge for store asset impairment, the company posted a loss of 13 cents a share, 14 cents better than analysts, on average, had expected.
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Quarterly sales slid 2 percent to $101.9 million from $103.9 million a year ago. Comparable-store sales for the quarter declined 4 percent but, according to the company, comps were positive during the last two months of the year. Gross margin for the period increased to 31.9 percent from 18.8 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.
Lorna Nagler, president and chief executive officer, said on the company conference call, “We are striving to achieve not only improved comp-store sales growth, but also higher-quality sales that will in turn drive merchandise margin expansion.”
For the year, Christopher & Banks swung to a profit of $158,000, or zero cents a share, compared with a net loss of $12.8 million, or 36 cents. Annual revenue contracted 14.2 percent to $455.4 million from $530.7 million.
Although the retailer did not provide earnings or sales guidance, it said it expected comps to be up in the mid- to high-single digits in the first quarter. The retailer anticipates opening about 10 stores and closing 25 this year.