Shoe Carnival, Inc. reported sales for the five-week period ended April 3, 2004 increased 3.7% to $56.6 million from sales of $54.6 million for the five-week period ended April 5, 2003. Comparable store sales decreased 4.9% in March 2004.
Based on the decline in sales for March, and the expectation of a comparable store sales decline in April of between 1 and 3 percent, management now expects earnings in the first quarter to range from $0.31 to $0.35 per diluted share.
Sales for the nine-week period ended April 3, 2004 increased 7.6 percent to $96.7 million from sales of $89.9 million for the nine-week period ended April 5, 2003. Comparable store sales decreased 1.1 percent for the two-month period.
Mark L. Lemond, president and chief executive officer commented, “A decrease in customer traffic in the last four weeks of March resulted in lower than expected sales, and consequently, lower than expected earnings. Despite the sales declines, we have controlled our inventories and we expect to end the quarter with total inventories on a per-store basis about flat with last year.”
The Company also announced the opening of seven new stores in March, one each in Conway, AR; St. Louis, MO; Spartanburg, SC; Summerville, SC; Austin, TX; San Antonio, TX; and Wichita Falls, TX.
