Macy’s sales decline for seventh quarter consecutively

Published: 14-Nov-2016

The US retailer said the main reason behind the decline was the closing of 41 of its underperforming stores

Macy’s has announced another quarter of declines in sales and profits, representing its seventh in a row.

The US department store retailer saw net income fall to $15m in Q3 2016, while sales dipped 4.2% to $5.626bn from $5.874bn in the same quarter of 2015.

Macy’s said the reason behind the drop largely resulted from the closing of 41 of its underperforming stores at the end of 2015.

A setback is a setup for a comeback and that is why we continue to look with confidence at the close of 2016 and our longer-term outlook.

In the quarter, the retailer did open a few new stores, however, including a Macy’s store in Kapolei, Hawaii, a Macy’s Backstage store in San Antonio, Texas, and seven Bluemercury stores.

Macy’s has agreed a recent deal to sell its $248,000sqft Union Square Men’s building in San Francisco, California, for $250m.

It said it would use part of the proceeds to consolidate its men’s store into its main Union Square store. It is also planning to sell its Portland, Oregan, store for $54m.

Despite its financial struggles and bricks-and-mortar scale-back, Macy’s Chairman and CEO Terry Lundgren remained positive.

He said: “As we have said, a setback is a setup for a comeback and that is why we continue to look with confidence at the close of 2016 and our longer-term outlook.”

Macy’s remained confident about its full-year earnings and raised its sales guidance.

It said it now expects comparable sales for full-year 2016 on an owned plus licensed basis to decrease in the range of 2.5-3% compared with previous guidance of a decrease in the range of 3-4%.

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