Data & Analytics

New York - Fairway Group Holdings Corp., the parent company of Fairway Market, moderately shrunk its net loss in the first quarter of fiscal 2015.

The retailer reported net loss of $8.54 million, down 3% from $8.84 million a year earlier. The decrease in the net loss was primarily attributable to a decrease in general and administrative expenses, production center start-up costs and direct store expenses, partially offset by lower gross profit and an increase in the income tax provision, interest expense and store opening costs.

New York – Tiffany & Co. overcame the negative impact of a strong dollar on global performance to beat Wall Street with smaller-than-expected declines in net earnings and sales during the first quarter of fiscal 2015. Net earnings declined 17% to $105 million from $126 million a year earlier, with increased marketing spending contributing to the decrease.

New York -- The Kate Spade New York brand has entered into a partnership with True Fit, a fit personalization service, to provide personalized fit and size recommendations for the brand’s apparel and footwear on Katespade.com.

The site will also feature True Fit’s new shoe user experience that delivers accurate fit ratings and size recommendations to consumers while also communicating the nuance of each shoe style.

Atlanta -- Arby’s Restaurant Group, franchisor of the Arby’s brand, announced that it has reached an 11%  total energy reduction per company-owned restaurant since 2011, paving the way to a goal of 15% energy reduction by the end of 2015. This follows a 2014 reported reduction of 3.3% in average year-over-year energy consumption per company-owned restaurant.

Boston – The stereotype of the beleaguered customer service representative who can’t keep up may have some truth to it. A recent study from Glance Networks, a provider of visual engagement, found that 73% of customer service professionals have difficulty meeting their performance metric goals.

Seattle – Amazon.com is hiring for more than 6,000 full-time jobs across its U.S. fulfillment network to meet growing customer demand. Employees will pick, pack and ship customer orders.

Ft. Myers, Fla. -- Chico's FAS Inc. on Wednesday reported that its first-quarter profit dropped 18% amid restructuring charges and lower sales.

The apparel retailer reported a profit of $32.5 million for the period ended, down from $39.9 million in the year-ago period. The results met Wall Street expectations.

Revenue rose 1.7% to $693.3 million in the period, which was short of Street forecasts.

Same-store sales fell 0.1%.
 

St. Louis -- Brown Shoe Co., which will soon change its name to Caleres, reported a strong first quarter, with net earnings rising 24.8% to $19.3 million amid better-than-expected same-store sales and strong margins.

Net revenue rose 1.9% to $602.3 million from $591 million in the year ago period. Same-store sales rose 3.1%.

Gross margin of 41.3% was up approximately 30 basis points year-over-year, while operating margin of 5.0% was up approximately 10 basis points.