Claire’s sees European sales improve
Move to boost non-US operation
February 5 2004
Accessories and fashion retailer Claire’s saw signs of improvement in its underperforming European operation in January.
Claire’s, which has had particular problems with its UK and French stores in recent months, said like-for-like European sales declined in the ‘low single digits’ across the month. an improvement on a high single digit’ decline reported in December.
The company, which also operates in Switzerland, Austria and Germany, last month parted company with UK president Lyle Finlay, and is managing the business from the US while a replacement is sought.
Bonnie Schaefer, co-chairman and co-CEO of Claire’s Stores, said, “In January we witnessed a marked improvement in our consolidated European same store sales results, with each region showing progress since December.
“A number of projects are underway to strengthen our European operations and they will continue to be a focus of management’s attention throughout Fiscal 2005. Our objective is for European same store sales to turn positive as the year progresses.”
In North America, both the Claire’s accessory chain, and the Icing by Claire’s fashion chain saw double digit same-store growth in January. Total sales during the month increased 17 per cent to $67.4m.
Fourth quarter sales for the three months to January 31 increased 13 per cent, with full year sales also up 13 per cent. Same-store sales across the year grew seven per cent.
