Saks Fifth Sales Growth Drives Revenue Gains at Hudson's Bay

(Bloomberg) -- Turnaround efforts are starting to pay off for Hudson’s Bay Co., which reported an increase in same-store sales driven by luxury chain Saks Fifth Avenue.

Key Insights

• Comparable same-store sales, a metric closely watched by analysts, climbed 2.9 percent. Including the impact of a promotional event that was moved forward, sales rose 1.2 percent. The Toronto-based retailer reported a smaller loss per share than a year earlier.
• Efforts to sharpen the fashion assortment and build more bridges between online and offline shopping at luxury chain Saks Fifth Avenue are paying off, with same-store sales up 7.3 percent.
• In contrast, Saks OFF 5th chain reported a 2.3 percent drop in comparable sales despite efforts underway to turn around business at the 133 stores.
• The company improved its gross profit margin by reducing discounts.

Market Reaction

• Stock has fallen 20 percent this year through Tuesday’s close, more than twice the decline of the main Canadian stock market gauge. The shares were little changed at C$8.97 in Toronto Wednesday
• For more details on the results, click here.

Digging Deeper

• Chief Executive Officer Helena Foulkes says in an interview that the company is still fixing the fundamentals, though she’s pleased with progress.
• “Everything still remains on the table” she said, repeating a motto that’s led to HBC selling Gilt, closing some Lord & Taylor stores and merging European operations with Signa Holding GmbH’s Karstadt.
• No need for HBC to sell its Vancouver building as the company feels good about liquidity, Foulkes says.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sandrine Rastello in Montreal at srastello@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Crayton Harrison at tharrison5@bloomberg.net, David Scanlan

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