The Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. said that based on fall season sales trends and continued expectations for a soft holiday season, it believes its full-year fiscal 2008 financial results will be at the low end of the previously stated guidance range. Guidance provided on Aug. 20, 2008 for fiscal 2008 diluted earnings per share was in a range of 45 cents to 95 cents excluding the write-off of goodwill, and $1.17 to $1.67 including the write-off of goodwill. Guidance for EBITDA was in the range of $200 to $213 million.
EVP and CFO Keith Plowman commented, “Given the current economic environment, we expect sales trends to remain soft and margins to be pressured by increasing promotional activity. Therefore, we are guiding to the low end of our guidance range for fiscal 2008. We will continue to closely monitor our sales and the consumers reaction to the developing macroeconomic environment.”
Plowman continued, “As we have previously stated, we believe we have an appropriate capital structure and are positioned to work through the difficult macroeconomic environment to create long-term shareholder value. We ended September with excess borrowing capacity under our revolving credit facility of approximately $241 million, well above the required balance of $75 million. Further, we believe that based upon our results through September and the outlook for the remainder of the year, our Company will generate positive cash flow in fiscal 2008 to reduce debt and increase excess borrowing availability.”
