Lands' End expects revenue decrease in fourth quarter

By

Obi Anyanwu

Published
Feb 11, 2017

Lands’ End on Thursday reported its preliminary fourth quarter results with an expected 3% decrease in net revenue to $473.5 million. The decrease is a result of an expected 2.5% decrease in the direct segment.

 
The retail segment is expected to decrease 6%, which reflects an estimated comparable sales decline of 3% and 11 fewer Lands’ End shops at Sears compared to last year. In addition, gross margin is expected to be 38.5% compared to 42.0% in the previous year.
 
James Gooch, Co-Interim Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, stated, “We continue to see sequential improvement in our sales and gross margin performance, despite the ongoing headwinds in the retail environment. We remained disciplined in controlling costs and managing inventory while taking important steps to better execute our business strategies and stabilize the business. While we still have a lot of work to do, we believe that we are on the right path to improve the business for the long-term.”

Lands’ End expects its net loss to range between $92.8 million and $98.8 million and its loss per share to range from $2.90 and $3.08. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be $30 million compared to $48.1 million in the previous year, and cash and cash equivalents are expected to be $213 million versus $228 million in the fourth quarter of 2015.
 
In December, the company revealed its defined strategy following the departure of Federica Marchionni, which includes enhancing its classic offering and refining its marketing strategy.

Lands’ End aggressively managed its costs in the third quarter, which allowed for the company the end the quarter with clean inventory levels. Despite the effort, third quarter net revenue and gross margin fell and were described as “disappointing”.