Ascena Retail registers net sales of $1.69 bn in Q2 2019

“We delivered our third consecutive quarter of enterprise-level comparable sales growth, with second quarter comps up 2 per cent. While we were pleased with continued traction at the enterprise level, performance was again mixed across our portfolio,” said David Jaffe, chairman and chief executive officer of Ascena retail group in a company press release. “Our Premium segment continues its momentum, with double-digit comparable sales growth supported by key growth initiatives. Our Value segment, while still operating at an unacceptable level of profitability, delivered operating income improvement versus the year-ago period for the first time since the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015. Unfortunately, we took a step back at our Plus and Kids segments this past quarter, and we must deliver more consistent execution to get enterprise financial results back to levels that we consider appropriate.”

“We remain on track with all cost takeout and capability building components of our Change for Growth transformation programme. We expect to realise $300 million in run rate savings by this coming July, and continue to aggressively roll out capability enhancements in our marketing and merchandise planning functions to drive top line and margin rate improvement. The third, and most critical component of our transformation programme, is growth from our core. We have made progress here over the past three quarters, but February performance was very challenging, and as a result, we are well off our planned trajectory for top-line growth,” added Jaffe.

Specific to its third quarter, the company currently expects a non-GAAP loss per share of $(0.45) to $(0.35), supported by the assumptions that net sales will be in the range of $1.43-$1.46 billion and comparable sales will be down from 4 per cent to 2 per cent for FY 2019.

“While we believe the challenging selling environment is the result of macro headwinds impacting our sector, our third quarter outlook represents an unacceptable profit shortfall to the expectations we shared at the beginning of our fiscal year. As a result, we are working to accelerate plans that were already in development to take much more fundamental action to address our cost structure. We are committed to addressing performance at our under-performing brands, and continue to explore opportunities within our portfolio that can allow us to focus capital and management attention on those brands that we believe can deliver sustained growth and profitability by maintaining a differentiated position in the marketplace,” said Jaffe. (PC)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India