Stage Stores February Comps Increase 1.4%

Stage Stores, Inc. reported a 12.4% increase in sales for the month of February to $104.6 million from $93.1 million during the same month last year. Comparable store sales increased 1.4% versus a decrease of 0.9% last year.

With regard to its major categories of business, the company reported that its accessories, cosmetics, dresses, home décor, men’s, misses sportswear, petites and women’s special sizes departments all had comparable store sales increases during February. Dresses, woman’s special sizes and accessories led the way with double-digit increases of 17.8%, 12.6% and 10.1%, respectively, followed closely by an 8.1% gain in cosmetics.

Jim Scarborough, chairman and CEO, commented, “Despite the inclement winter weather that impacted many of their market areas throughout much of February, our Peebles division had an outstanding month, achieving a comparable store sales increase in the low double digits. On the other hand, sales results for our Stage Division were dampened by reduced levels of winter clearance merchandise due to our high volume of clearance sales during January. Having said that, early reads on sales of our spring merchandise are encouraging, and we believe that we are well positioned to meet our customer’s needs for the upcoming Easter holiday and spring into summer selling periods.

“With regard to Easter, we anticipate that our comparable store sales results for March will benefit from the Easter calendar shift from April 16th last year to April 8th this year. Conversely, we expect that our sales results for April will be somewhat negatively impacted by this calendar shift. For the first quarter, we are projecting an overall comparable store sales increase in the low to mid single digits,” Mr. Scarborough concluded.

Comparable Store Sales Calculation Methodology for Fiscal 2007

Due to the fact that the 2006 fiscal year consisted of 53 weeks, the 2007 fiscal year started one week later than the 2006 fiscal year (FY 2007 started on February 4, 2007 while FY 2006 started on January 29, 2006). In calculating its monthly comparable store sales for the 2007 fiscal year, the company stated that it does not intend to shift the fiscal 2006 calendar to be in sync with the fiscal 2007 calendar. While this means that most key promotional events will occur one week earlier in fiscal 2007 versus fiscal 2006, most of these events will still fall within the same monthly period. In those months where this is not the case, the company intends to provide appropriate commentary in its sales release on the impact of the calendar shift of the event on its sales.

Store Activity

The company reported that, while no new stores were opened in February, it currently plans to open five new stores in March. These stores will be opened in the states of Michigan, Mississippi, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.