Tuesday Morning improved its comparable store sales during its first quarter, however, the company’s losses continued to mount.
In the first quarter of fiscal 2017 ended September 30, Tuesday Morning Corp. recorded a net loss of $8.9 million, or 20 cents per share, compared to a net loss of $6.1 million, or 14 cents per share, in the year-prior quarter.
The loss for the quarter was a penny less than the analyst average estimate published by MarketBeat.
Comparable store sales gained 5.1% versus the quarter a year earlier, with customer transactions up 6.2% but average ticket down 1%. Net sales for the quarter were $211.9 million versus $202.3 million for the 2016 period. Operating loss was $9.2 million, versus an operating loss of $6 million in the previous-year quarter.
During the first quarter, Tuesday Morning stated that it relocated 19 stores, expanded eight, opened two and closed 11, for an ending store count of 742. The retailer asserted that first quarter sales at the 51 stores relocated during the previous 12 months increased 58% on average year over year, contributing approximately 350 basis points to the comparable store sales increase.
“We continue to make progress across all of our core initiatives at Tuesday Morning,” said Steve Becker, Tuesday Morning CEO. “We made meaningful headway with our real estate initiatives during the quarter. We completed a total of 40 store projects including relocations, openings, expansions and closures. We are enthusiastic about the customer response to our newly opened and relocated stores. We continue to provide our customers the iconic Tuesday Morning treasure hunt experience they are looking for, but it is now delivered in a refreshed environment that is inviting to both existing and new customers. During the quarter, we experienced issues related to the ramp of our newly opened Phoenix distribution facility. These issues resulted in lower than plan store level inventories during the quarter which affected sales in our entire store base. Despite these constraints, we delivered a 5.1% comp sales increase for the quarter. We believe that we have addressed the majority of the issues associated with the Phoenix distribution center and have reached a healthy in stock inventory position as we move into the holidays.”
