The Talbots Inc announced significant progress in its integration efforts to combine the Talbots and J. Jill brands and is providing its current financial outlook for the second quarter and second half of 2006.
The Company reported that its integration efforts are ahead of plan, and anticipates an increase in expected cost saving synergies to be greater than $30 million for fiscal 2007, compared to its original expectation of $25 million.
Arnold B. Zetcher, Talbots Chairman, President and CEO, commented, "We are delighted with the progress we have made in identifying various synergy opportunities throughout the areas of sourcing, distribution, store operations and back-office functions. Our integration efforts are going quite well, and we are in the process of executing the action plans necessary to achieve all of these cost savings." Second Quarter Outlook
In terms of the second quarter, Mr. Zetcher had the following comments, "For the combined company, we are currently on track to achieve positive low single digit comparable store sales results in the second quarter, in line with our previous expectations. We are very pleased with sales of our Talbots brand merchandise, which are trending ahead of plan. However, selling trends in the J. Jill brand, which represent approximately 20 percent of the total combined company sales volume, are below expectations."
"We have new J. Jill leadership in place to address the merchandising issues that have impacted the brand over the past year, and we anticipate an improvement in the versatility of J. Jill's apparel in late fall 2006 and more fully in the spring of 2007," continued Mr. Zetcher.
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