The Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. said comparable store sales for the four weeks ended Aug. 28, 2010 decreased 4.6%. Total sales for the four weeks decreased 5.0% to $187.2 million compared with $197.0 million for the prior year period.
Year-to-date comparable store sales increased 0.8%. Year-to-date total sales increased 0.4% to $1.45 billion compared with $1.45 billion for the same period last year.
“August sales were impacted by the hottest weather in our markets since 1995,” said Vice Chairman and President – Merchandizing Tony Buccina. “Additionally, our reduced levels of summer clearance inventory further challenged sales given the perceived desirability of that merchandise as a value-focused consumer is shopping closer to need. Both of these factors, we believe, suppressed back-to-school sales and early fall demand for apparel. While August sales did not meet our expectations, we had a much improved conversion to fall merchandise as compared with the prior year. Our best performing businesses were intimate apparel, hard home, shoes, cosmetics and jewelry. Our weaker performing businesses were outerwear, juniors, children's, and ladies' and men's sportswear. We begin September with fresher inventories and apparel clearance inventory down 17% compared with the prior year.”
Keith Plowman, Executive VP and CFO, stated, “We ended August with excess borrowing capacity under our revolving credit facility of approximately $426 million, well above the required minimum availability of $75 million.”
