Irving-based Zale posts 20% drop in sales

by PegNews wire

IRVING — Zale Corporation, the Irving-based specialty retailer of fine jewelry in North America, today reported that comparable store sales decreased 19.6% for the combined months of November and December 2008, encompassing the entire holiday selling period. Total revenues for the two-month period were $582 million compared to $723 million last year, a decrease of 19.5%.

Within this two month period, November comparable same store sales declined 13% and December same store sales declined 22%. November sales were boosted by improvement during the Thanksgiving weekend. December sales improved during the week leading up to Christmas, and the general post-Christmas trend has been good as well. At December 31, 2008, inventory levels were approximately $115 million less than the prior year, and the overall assortment is much more current than last year.

Neal Goldberg, Zale Chief Executive Officer, said, "This holiday period was the most difficult in memory due to the overall macroeconomic situation. This environment dictated a very aggressive promotional stance with a focus on cash flow and inventory levels. While we suffered along with all retailers, we nonetheless believe that a number of the improvements in merchandise and management we have made over the past year helped our performance. We believe that we are in a strong position to benefit from the winnowing of competitors that we have already seen, and we intend to continue driving improvements in product and efficiency. We are determined to maintain our solid financial position and will take whatever actions are necessary to adjust expense levels and inventory spend to sales trends during 2009."

Source: Zale Corporation