Shares of women's retailer J. Jill Group (NASDAQ:JILL) are off 17% today to around $12.50 after the company again broke shareholders' hearts. After posting lower quarterly earnings for three quarters in a row, J. Jill announced late yesterday that it will post a stinging loss for its third quarter. To add to that, it offered no guidance or insight for the fourth quarter, other than to say it "disavows" earlier targets, leaving the market to sort out the mess on its own.
J. Jill's an unfortunate example of what happens when a small speciality retailer loses its way amid shifting customer shopping patterns and fashion miscues. Once known primarily as a popular catalog retailer selling soft, neutral clothes and accessories to a target market of affluent women aged 35 and older, J. Jill found itself in a pinch when catalog sales began slipping and Internet sales became popular. The company set out to restructure itself, hoping to seamlessly transition into three sales channels: catalog, online, and retail locations.
For a while, the restructuring was successful, but beginning in December 2002, the seamless transition hit a snag. The company seemed unprepared for the fact that a rapid rise in the popularity of its stores would be countered by a dip in catalog sales. Adding to the pain was the fact that J. Jill's fashion choices started missing the mark. At the time, the company said, "We recognize that we have some short-term issues to work through and we are dedicated to getting the business back on track."
It's still getting "back on track," and what were hoped to be merely "short-term issues" have lingered on. When J. Jill reported lower second-quarter earnings back in July, it predicted that its third quarter could potentially produce a loss, mainly because of fashion mistakes, inventory issues, and margin woes. Analysts lowered their projections at that point to a loss of $0.01 a share, but the company estimated yesterday that its actual loss will be $0.13-$0.15.
Management acknowledged that restructuring its business has proven to be "much more complicated than we anticipated." J. Jill's fashion problems are also still hampering results, leading the company to reorganize its merchandising and design areas in an attempt to fix its troubles there.
The uncertainty at J. Jill will continue on from here, meaning that until investors start seeing real signs that the company is righting itself, they should shop elsewhere.
