Kellwood Company announced that it expects sales in the fourth quarter to be approximately $585 million which is below the previous guidance of $600 million provided on December 2, 2004. Last year the Company reported sales of $521 million in the fourth quarter.
Net earnings from continuing operations in the fourth quarter are expected to be approximately $6.5 million, or approximately $0.23 per diluted share, which is below the December 2 guidance of $13.7 million or $0.48 per share, according to Hal J. Upbin, chairman and chief executive officer. Last year, the Company reported net earnings of $12.8 million and earnings per diluted share of $0.46 from continuing operations in the fourth quarter.
“The late Fall and Holiday 2004 selling season at retail was disappointing for our customers. As a result the stores took aggressive Holiday markdowns and cut back on Spring 2005 open-to-buy.
“Essentially all of the drop in sales and earnings from our earlier forecast occurred in the women’s sportswear segment due to a combination of having to provide significantly more end-of-year markdown assistance for some of our brands, having to sell more units off price to liquidate seasonal inventory, and lower than expected Spring 2005 orders,” said Upbin.
The Company now expects sales for the year to be approximately $2.55 billion, versus its earlier forecast of $2.57 billion. Last year Kellwood reported sales of $2.35 billion.
Net earnings for fiscal year 2004 from continuing operations are now forecasted to be in the range of $70.0 million, or approximately $2.50 per diluted share. On December 2, 2004 Kellwood provided net earnings guidance of $77.5 million, or $2.75 per diluted share. Last year the Company reported net earnings of $72.6 million, or $2.68 per diluted share from continuing operations.
