The Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. reported comparable store sales for the four weeks ended Nov. 27, 2010 increased 2.9%.
Year-to-date comparable store sales increased 1.2%. Year-to-date total sales increased 0.9% to $2.29 billion compared with $2.27 billion for the same period last year.
Tony Buccina, Vice Chairman and President Merchandising, commented, “We are pleased with our sales performance in November, which included a record-breaking Black Friday. As anticipated, we posted strong sales gains in cold weather merchandise categories with the arrival of seasonable temperatures. Our best performing categories were coats, home, shoes, men’s, children's, cosmetics and fine jewelry, with better men's and missy sportswear and better shoes outperforming total company sales. Weaker performing categories were the traditional moderate missy, petite and large-size sportswear and juniors. We continue to post significant sales gains in eCommerce. We begin December well-positioned for holiday selling with comparable store inventory up 3% and our aging of inventory much improved over last year.”
Keith Plowman, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, stated, “We ended November with excess borrowing capacity under our revolving credit facility of approximately $446 million, well above the required minimum availability of $75 million.”
