"As we previously announced, after experiencing a six month period of healthy positive comps beginning in April and a particularly strong September for the Talbots brand, we anticipated a strong fourth quarter and increased our inventory commitment. Unfortunately, these strong sales trends were not sustained, which resulted in higher levels of markdown merchandise available for our post-Christmas semi-annual clearance event and deeper discounts."
"For J. Jill, we saw a continued trend of improving business performance throughout the fourth quarter, with comps turning positive for the first time in over a year. However, we did not achieve our overall sales expectations for the period due to weaker than anticipated performance across all channels. This also resulted in heavier markdowns during the period, which impacted the bottom line."
"As a result, we will be taking a more conservative approach to inventory management, particularly for the Talbots brand, and believe the heavy markdowns that impacted the fourth quarter are confined to that period."
marketing@alchempro.com
