Charming Shoppes narrows Q4 loss

Bensalem, Pa. Charming Shoppes reported Tuesday that its fourth-quarter loss narrowed as the retailer cut costs and closed stores. However, the shutterings resulted in a revenue drop of 14.7%, to $539 million in the quarter.

According to the plus-size apparel retailer’s president and CEO Jim Fogarty, efforts to stabilize and grow the business are a work in progress.

"Considering lead times to adjust apparel assortments, our results in the fourth quarter showed only modest improvement and reflected very similar assortment issues to those we referenced in the third quarter -- a lack of focus on our customer and a failure to provide her with a strong, focused core tops and bottoms assortment,” he said.

Charming Shoppes lost $28 million for the period ended Jan. 30, compared with a loss of $114 million in the year-ago quarter. Excluding impairment charges and other items, the company that runs Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug and other stores lost $12.1 million, which beat Wall Street expectations.

Same-store sales dropped 12% during the quarter.