Buckle Inc. announced that Robert M. Carlberg, senior vice president of men’s merchandising, would retire from his position with the company at the end of the current fiscal year.

Carlberg joined the company as a salesperson in October 1983 and served as a store manager and as an area and district leader before joining its merchandising team in January 2001. He was appointed vice president of men’s merchandising in 2006 and senior vice president of men’s merchandising in 2014.

Dennis H. Nelson, president and CEO, commented, “I would like to thank Bob for his 37 years of dedicated service to Buckle and for the passion and energy he brought to building such a strong men’s merchandising team and continually growing our men’s business.”

The teen chain also reported total net sales for the 4-week fiscal month ended May 29, 2021, increased 75.4 percent to $89.7 million from net sales of $51.2 million for the prior year 4-week fiscal month ended May 30, 2020. Compared to the same 4-week period in fiscal 2019, net sales increased 45.9 percent from net sales of $61.5 million for the 4-week fiscal month ended June 1, 2019.

Net sales for the 17-week fiscal period ended May 29, 2021, increased 133.4 percent to $388.9 million from net sales of $166.6 million for the prior year’s 17-week fiscal period ended May 30, 2020. Compared to the same 17-week period in fiscal 2019, net sales increased 48.0 percent from net sales of $262.8 million for the 17-week fiscal period ended June 1, 2019.

Net sales for fiscal 2020 were significantly impacted by the company’s closure of all brick and mortar stores due to the COVID-19 pandemic beginning March 18, 2020. As a result of the impact of the store closures on prior-year reported net sales, the company will report total net sales each month compared to the past two years and does not plan to separately report comparable store sales for the months most affected by the store closures. The company plans to resume its regular monthly reporting with its August results.

Photo courtesy Buckle