Ascena weighed down by writedowns in Q4

Justice continues to be a drain for the Ascena Retail Group, but in the fourth quarter Lane Bryant also proved to be a burden, as the company reported a drop in same-store sales.



The operator of Justice, as well as stores under the Lane Bryant, Cacique, Maurices, Dressbarn, and Catherines brands, said combined same-store sales declined 2% during its fourth quarter of fiscal 2015 ended July 25.



David Jaffe, president and CEO of Ascena Retail Group Inc., said: "Results for the quarter were challenged by two large, non-operating expense hits related to a goodwill and trade name impairment at Lane Bryant and litigation activity at Justice. On the operating front, Justice had a difficult quarter as expected, and Dressbarn missed expectations due to assortment challenges. With all that said, we were pleased with fourth quarter performance at Maurices, Lane Bryant, and Catherines. As we move into fall, we are excited about the new Justice selling model, where back-to-school performance exceeded our expectations. And the team at Dressbarn has been hard at work on merchandise refinement and fall marketing to improve performance."



Ascena reported a loss of $323.4 million, or $1.98 a share, compared to a profit of $15.7 million, or 10 cents a share, a year earlier. Per-share earnings fell to 6 cents from 13 cents a year earlier. Revenue fell 1.1% to $1.17 billion.



Jaffe added: “We are executing against controllable factors, mindful that traffic continues to be challenging. Our brands remain focused on strong merchandising execution, and disciplined inventory and expense management. We are making good progress toward the multi-year development of our enterprise omnichannel platform, which is a key element of our long-term growth plan. And with the acquisition of Ann Inc., our shared services group is aggressively working to capture the $150 million of identified deal synergies. We feel very good about the unique and scalable model we are creating, and believe we are positioned well for the long term."



Ascena Retail Group has approximately 3,900 stores throughout the United States and Canada.