Shoe Carnival, Inc. reported sales for the five-week period ended July 5, 2003 increased 4.1% to $47.5 million from sales of $45.6 million for the five-week period ended July 6, 2002. Comparable store sales decreased 5.4% in June 2003. In June 2002, comparable store sales increased 3.4%.
The Company stated that due to a decrease in customer traffic, sales results have been below expectations. Earnings for the second quarter are now expected to be in the range of $.10 to $.13 per diluted share.
Sales for the first five months of 2003 increased 5.7 percent to $224.0 million from sales of $211.9 million for the first five months of 2002. Comparable store sales decreased 5.1 percent for the twenty-two week period.
Mark L. Lemond, president and chief executive officer, commented, “While we are disappointed with our recent sales trend, we reacted to this trend and aggressively managed our inventories of seasonal footwear, particularly sandals and other summer product. Our inventories today are considerably fresher than at this time last year. With good early sales of new Fall receipts, we expect our merchandise margins for the quarter to be only slightly below last year’s level, but overall gross margins will decline more significantly due to the deleveraging effect of lower sales on buying, distribution and occupancy costs.
“We have taken advantage of select manufacturers oversupply of athletic product and purchased significant quantities at favorable prices, which we believe will enhance our back-to-school selling season. We feel that our improved assortment of junior and athletic footwear from key vendors, opportunistic buys of athletic product and earlier deliveries of fall merchandise leaves us well positioned as customers return to stores for their back-to-school shopping.”
The Company also announced the opening of five stores during the month with locations in Noblesville, IN (Indianapolis area), Brooksville, FL (Tampa area), Knoxville, TN, Houston, TX and San Antonio, TX.
