Hot Topic announced net sales for fiscal August 2003 increased 31% to $61.5 million from net sales of $46.8 million for fiscal August 2002. Same store sales for the four weeks ended August 30, 2003 increased by 11.8% compared to the corresponding four weeks last year. A year ago, August same store sales increased by 5.3% as compared with fiscal August 2001. Seven new Hot Topic stores and two new Torrid stores were opened in August 2003.
Net sales for the first 30 weeks of fiscal 2003 were $277.9 million, an increase of 27% over sales of $219.2 million for the same period of fiscal 2002. Same store sales increased 5.7% for the first 30 weeks of fiscal 2003 compared to the corresponding period in fiscal 2002. Same store sales for the first 30 weeks of fiscal 2002 increased by 1.1% compared with the corresponding period in fiscal 2001.
The company also announced that as a result of the August sales performance, the company is guiding to a mid-single digit comp increase for the third quarter 2003. In addition, the company is guiding to a split-adjusted earnings per share for the quarter of approximately $0.26 per diluted share, up from the original guidance at the beginning of the quarter of $0.25 per diluted share.
