Bon-Ton Stores Inc. (BONT) slashed its expectations for the year and the retailer warned poor winter weather in the majority of its markets led to lower traffic and hampered promotional events tied to the Christmas holiday.
The retailer, which operates 273 department stores with locations in the Northeast, Midwest and upper Great Plains states, said the disappointing results could be blamed on bad weather.
“We are disappointed with the deceleration in sales during December, particularly given the strong start to the holiday season beginning with Black Friday and extending through the early part of the month,” President and Chief Executive Brendan Hoffman said.
Bon-Ton said promotional events on key weekend days leading up to and continuing after Christmas were affected by the poor weather.
The company now expects same-store sales for the fiscal year to fall about 3.5%, worse that the November estimate of growth between 1.5% to 2.5%.
As a result, Bon-Ton warned per-share results for the year could range between a 15-cent profit to a 30-cent loss, down from the prior estimate of earnings between 15 cents to 75 cents. As recently as May, Bon-Ton had guided for full-year profit as high as $1 a share.
Shares, inactive in after-hours trading, closed down 2% to $15.50 on Friday.
source: WSJ, John Kell
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