Department store chain J.C. Penney Company., Inc. (JCP), Thursday, said its comparable store sales dropped 4.6% in January. Women's apparel and fine jewelry segments emerged as top performers, while children's segment was weakest.
Comparable store sales, or sales at stores opened at least for a year, decreased 4.6% during January, compared to a decline of 16.4% in the same month a year ago. Total company sales in January fell 4.4% to $940 million from $983 million.
Overall, sales in the January reflected planned lower levels of clearance inventory and selling, said the company.
The best performing region during the month of January was the central region, while northwest region recorded the softest sales. Internet sales continued to show strength during the month with a high single-digit increase versus last year's January period.
Like many other retailers, J.C. Penney has also been troubled the uncertain global economy in the form of reduced traffic, as customers were attracted to promotional sales destinations. Measures including reducing inventory and addition of more economic items to the shelves were employed to combat profit declines. One Kiss brand by Cindy Crawford, which the company announced today is part of many such measures. Beginning in April, J.C. Penney will start showcasing One Kiss jewelry with price tags as low as $79 to $299.
In June last year, comp sales were down 8.2%, while in July the decline intensified to 12.3%. Later in August, the decline was 7.9%, which was reduced to a decline of 5.9% in November and 3.8% in December 2009.
Among others in the industry, Kohl's Corp. (KSS) reported a 6.5% increase in comparable store sales for the month of January with a 10.7% increase in total sales to $798 million.
Another department stores operator Macy's, Inc. (M) reported an 3.4% increase in January same-store sales and also raised its fourth quarter earnings forecast.
For the thirteen-week period, J.C. Penney's decline in comparable store sales were 4.5%, compared to a decline of 10.8% in the year-earlier period. Total sales slipped 3.6% to $5.55 billion.
For the 52-week period, comparable store sales were down 6.3%, compared to a decline of 8.5% in the same period a year ago. Total sales were down 6.9% at $17.56 billion.
J. C. Penney is scheduled to release its fourth quarter financial results before the market opens on Friday, February 19, 2010.
JCP is currently trading at $25.62, down $0.35 or 1.39%, on a volume of 3.46 million shares. In the last-52 week period, the stock traded in a range of $13.71 to $37.21, with a three-month average volume of 5.24 million shares.
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