The Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. said comparable store sales for the four weeks ended Feb. 27, 2010 increased 0.5%. Total sales for the four weeks decreased 0.1% to $199.9 million compared with $200.2 million for the prior year period.
Tony Buccina, Vice Chairman and President-Merchandising, commented, We are encouraged by our February sales, which exceeded expectations, despite significant disruption from winter storms. We estimate the storms to have impacted our performance by several percentage points. Increased sales were generated from regular-priced merchandise, our incredible value program and eCommerce. Our best performing businesses were outerwear, accessories, shoes, cosmetics, childrens, juniors and soft home. Our weakest performing businesses were hard home and furniture. We ended the month with 13% less clearance inventory than a year ago. We are pleased with the positive response from our customers to our fresh spring assortment.
Keith Plowman, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, stated, We ended February with excess borrowing capacity under our revolving credit facility of approximately $393 million, well above the required minimum availability of $75 million.
