Earnings Call Excerpt
The Children’s Place Retail Stores, Inc. (PLCE)
December Sales Results Call
January 10, 2008, 7:30 am ET
Executives
Jane Singer – Investor Relations
Presentation
Jane Singer
Thank you for your interest in The Children’s Place Retail Stores and welcome to our report on business for the fiscal month of December, 2007. Before I continue I’d like to remind you that any forward-looking remarks made today are subject to the Safe Harbor Statements found in this morning’s press release as well as in our SEC filings. The company undertakes no obligation to publically release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof.
For the five weeks into January 5, 2008 The Children’s Place Retail Stores, Inc. reported total consolidated sales of $314.6 million, a 1% decrease compared to last year. December sales included $199.9 million from The Children’s Place, a 1% increase over last year. And $114.7 million from Disney Store, a 5% decrease compared to last year.
December consolidated comparable store sales increased 2%. The Children’s Place brand comparable store sales increased 6% on top of last year’s 4% increase. Disney Stores comparable sales declined 4% compared to a 10% increase last year.
During the fiscal month we opened one Children’s Place store and seven Disney Stores.
For the nine week holiday selling period, The Children’s Place brand achieved a 7% increase in comparable store sales on top of a 4% increase for the same period last year. Disney Store reported a 5% decline in comparable store sales compared to a 12% increase last year.
Total consolidated sales for the 48 weeks ended January 5, 2008 increased 8% to $2,041.1 million. Sales for the year to date period included $1,438 million from The Children’s Place brand, a 9% increase over last year, and $603.1 million from Disney Store, a 6% increase over last year. For the year to date period consolidated comparable store sales increased 2%. The Children’s Place brand comparable store sales increased 2% on top of last year’s 11% increase. Disney Store comparable store sales were flat compared to last year’s 13% increase.
For the year to date period, we opened 52 Children’s Place stores and closed six. In addition, we opened nine Disney stores.
The following discussion reflects The Children’s Place brand only.
During December we were pleased with the positive customer response to our holiday merchandise assortment and great gifts floor set that arrived in stores after Thanksgiving. Key items such as fleece, long sleeve knits, denims and accessories performed well across all departments. We believe the positive comp for the month was a result of our return to a brighter color pallet, our deeper inventory position on key items and the newness of our great gifts floor set. Our deep inventory position on key items helped drive comp sales, but the high inventories also resulted in more unit markdowns for the month in order to clear through the holiday merchandise.
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