Women's fashion apparel retailer Ann Taylor (NYSE:ANN) reported first-quarter results yesterday that continue recent trends of looking a bit frayed at the edges. While meeting analyst expectations of $0.24 earnings per share, the outcome was not as stylish as followers of the company would like to see.
Total revenues climbed 10% on new store growth that has added 14.6% to square footage over the past year. But comparable-store sales were down 3.1%, falling into the red at both the original Ann Taylor stores and the higher-growth Loft concept.
The company was hurt by an overly aggressive merchandise plan, and a mix of styles that missed the mark for the spring season. Reducing prices to clear inventory drove gross margins down by 7%, resulting in quarterly EPS of barely more than half what the company delivered in the first quarter last year. As inventories remain 8% higher than prior year on a per-square-foot basis, expect markdowns to be a continuing theme for the next few months as the company gradually moves its merchandise.
As I noted a few days ago, this has been an up and down quarter for fashion retailers. Strong results at Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF) have been tempered by lukewarm numbers from Talbots (NYSE:TLB) Gap (NYSE:GPS) and Limited (NYSE:LTD). Fool favorite Chico's (NYSE:CHS) reports first-quarter happenings next week, and with comparable sales running around 10% for the past three months, the Street is expecting it to shine.
Ann Taylor has been delivering pretty mixed results lately. After a five-quarter run of impressive sales growth in the latter part of 2003 and the first half of 2004, it fell into a slump late last year, and has since posted two quarters of same-store sales declines.
Analysts were consoled yesterday when the company promised to return to its winning ways later in the year. I see hope for this as Kay Krill, who has led such impressive growth at the Loft stores, takes over as CEO in a recently announced succession plan. But first things first: Ann Taylor needs to clean up its inventory position, and get the mix fine-tuned for the fall season.
Keep your wardrobe stylish by checking out recent fashion news below:
- Don't get caught in Talbots' dilemma.
- A fashion faux pas at Limited.
- A new concept for The Gap.
Fool contributor Timothy M. Otte follows the retail scene from Atlanta. He welcomes comments on his articles, but doesn't own the stock of any company mentioned in this article.
