Okay the Lane Bryant/Catherine's decision for which line to sell I will admit I was on the side of selling Justice where as the others were leaning towards Lane Bryant and Catherine's and after seeing their reasoning I was too was on the side that Jane Bryant and Catherine's were the obvious choice. First after closing many poor performing stores in over saturated markets and markets that had turned south with continuing strong this past Q for Justice and their continuation into the beginning of the 4th Q it was the obvious choice to keep. Where as Catherine's is just too much a drag on the plus fashion line even with the success of Casique Catherine's just continued to pull plus fashion down. Now with focus by someone who has no other lines in their bag to deal with yes probably something can be done for a new buyer many ways to go but it will definitely take some dedicated effort and focus and time, which Ascena obviously hasn't the ability to do at the moment.
So going forward after the Dress barns are closed and Lane Bryant/Catherine's is sold what will Ascena look like. Well a lean mean machine, they will have their Premium fashion with 964 Ann Taylor's after closing 2 under-performers in the last Q and opening 1. Over the last 12 months they closed 16 under performers going from 980 stores to 964 during that same time Loft closed 13 under-performers last Q and 78 over all which was good as the line was over-saturated in some areas to the extreme. The proof is in the pudding with 94 under-performers closed in premium fashion their comp sales were up 5% for the Q and revenues YoY for the line as follows
Premium Fashion
2019 $549.5 million
2018 $532.7 million
Obviously with near fewer 100 stores, saving one can only guess on labor, leases, electric, licenses etc. they did 17 million more in revenues. Obviously a winner going forward which without the losers will be much better, no? Going forward in the conference call the CEO had this to say.
"That said, our transformation program delivered significant expense reductions, and we were pleased to see improved comp sales performance exiting the third quarter. This momentum has continued into our fourth quarter with quarter-to-date comp sales up mid-single digits."
So it seems it continued and if it is anything like the rest of retail which has been on a steady incline since April and continue with the holiday season estimates being a Trillion dollars in sales being up 5% YoY. And I need not remind anyone in retail, we have had a bit of a cleansing of the landscape as it were, with as the media and its never ending Retail Apocalypse/Armageddon there are 1000's of stores missing from the landscape to share in those higher by 5% estimated sales this holiday season, just saying the ones that trimmed down set them selves up going forward should be handsomely rewarded for their efforts. The future looks good for retail in general going forward especially for those that trimmed up.
Will finish tomorrow with Justice and the shares and how they play out going forward. With the share repurchase plan Ascena has in place which is rather important with the 2 board members who are also deep in shares, they will make sure the right competent decision is brought up, though i doubt they even have to its a no brainer in the fortune 500 world, look at what the airlines did in 2013. This one will surprise no doubt, But will layout the rest of details on DD we found and you can make your own minds up, but, at least some honest information to refer to now when overwhelmed with nonsense and agenda driven double talk and arrogance from those who have no reason under the sun to act as such. Most who are arrogant and condescending have nothing but attitude as there just isn't anything else there, like talking to an empty bag.
