Bakers Footwear Widened its net loss in its first quarter ended May 5, to $1 million, or 15 cents a share, $700,000, or 10 cents, a year ago. Sales slid to $49.3 million from $49.8 million. Comparable store sales decreased 9.3%, compared to a decrease of 0.8% in the prior-year period.
Gross profit in the first quarter was $15.3 million, or 31% of net sales, compared to $16.3 million, or 32.7% of net sales in the first quarter last year. Operating loss was $1.2 million, compared to operating income of $1.2 million in the first quarter last year.
Peter Edison, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Bakers Footwear Group said, “Our first quarter performance reflected a lack of enthusiasm for our fashion footwear by our core customers and an unfavorable response to our spring assortments across our key fashion categories. On a positive note, we did achieve our inventory goals. At quarter end, inventory declined 1.4% from last year despite adding 13 net new stores since the first quarter of fiscal 2006.”
During the first quarter of fiscal 2007, the Company opened six new stores in the new Bakers format and remodeled four Bakers locations, ending the quarter with 258 total stores.
Edison continued: “Our second quarter sales continue to be soft, with comparable store sales in May down 15.1%. We hope to show improvement in the fall season, as our efforts to provide compelling fall/holiday assortments while maintaining tight management of inventory and expenses bear fruit.”
The company currently estimates fiscal 2007 EBITDA to be approximately $5.5 million to $8.0 million, compared to actual fiscal 2006 EBITDA of $6.1 million. EBITDA is a non-GAAP measure. See Table 1 below for a reconciliation of net loss to EBITDA and a discussion regarding the use of EBITDA. The Company anticipates a net loss for fiscal 2007 in the range of $1.6 million to $3.3 million and a net loss per share in the range of $0.24 to $0.50. This compares to a net loss of $1.5 million and a net loss per share of $0.24 in fiscal 2006.
During fiscal 2007, the Company expects to open between 8 to 10 new stores, including stores opened in the first quarter. The specialty retailer of moderately priced fashion footwear for young women now operates 258 stores.
