Sam's Club: Sam's Club experienced continued momentum with sales to small business owners, with positive trends in both business member ticket and traffic. Category strengths were in food, including fresh items. Sales of outdoor furniture and grills improved, when compared to the four-week May period.
International: The Company sees the same pressures on customers in many of its international markets as in the United States. In the United Kingdom, Asda for example, has launched its biggest ever campaign of price reductions across food, general merchandise, George clothing and, just last week, fuel.
Guidance: The Company expects comparable store sales for the July four-week reporting period to be between 1 and 2 percent, said Tom Schoewe, executive vice president and chief financial officer. The July four-week period runs from July 7 through August 3, 2007.
"We estimate that earnings per share from continuing operations for the second quarter of fiscal year 2008 will continue to be within our previously stated guidance of $0.75 to $0.79," Schoewe said. "We remain in a challenging environment, but still believe the earnings guidance for the quarter is attainable."
As previously noted, the Company reports net sales and comparable store sales consistent with the National Retail Federation (NRF) calendar. The NRF calendar for the most recently completed year included 53 weeks, but includes only 52 weeks this year. The weekly sales information for the five-week and 22-week periods ended July 7, 2006 reported in this release match the comparable weeks for the current fiscal year. However, these five-week and 22-week comparable store sales periods reported for last year ended July 6, 2006, one week earlier.
marketing@alchempro.com
