Citi Trends September Comp Sales Jump 19.5%

Citi Trends, Inc. reported that total net sales for the five-week period ended October 1 increased 43.1% to $22.4 million compared with $15.7 million for the five-week period ended October 2, 2004. Comparable store sales increased 19.5% for September, compared with a 1.7% increase in the prior-year period. Relocated and expanded stores are included in the comparable store sales results.

During the five-week period ended October 1, 2005, the Company had a total of 36 stores closed for at least one day of the period due to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, with 7 stores remaining closed as of the end of the period. Excluding the stores closed as a result of the hurricanes from both the current and prior-year periods, the Company would have reported a total net sales increase for the five-week period ended October 1, 2005 of 35.5% and a comparable store sales increase of 13.8% for the five-week period ended October 1, 2005. As stores reopened during the period, their post-hurricane sales more than offset the closed days' negative sales impact.

For fiscal 2005, the Company plan was to open 40 new stores, including 16 new stores after September 2005. Due to the expected inability to open new stores originally targeted to open in markets affected by the hurricanes, the Company now expects to open approximately 37 new stores in fiscal 2005. With the revised number of new store openings and the uncertainty of reopening the 7 currently closed stores, the Company estimates that it will end the year with a total of 230 to 237 stores in operation.

Based on the Company's sales trends to date in the third quarter and the stronger-than-expected sales performance of the stores that have reopened since the hurricanes, offset by the revised expectations for new store openings in fiscal 2005, the Company remains comfortable with its previously issued fiscal 2005 outlook of earnings per share in a range of $0.75 to $0.78. This outlook includes a one-time termination fee of $1.2 million, or $0.05 per share charge, that the Company previously disclosed.