The Children's Place no longer the place for shoppers

Specialty apparel retailer The Children’s Place Inc. saw its net loss grow and net sales drop in a difficult second quarter of fiscal 2015.



Net loss increased to $13.7 million, from $10.7 million in the same quarter a year earlier.



Higher selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses, as well as several non-recurring items including legal fees, impairment charges and restructuring costs, helped push The Children’s Place further into the red.



Net sales fell 5% to $366.45 million, from $384.63 million. Same-store sales declined 3.5%. Decreased traffic, increased promotions and the effects of the West Coast port slowdown all hampered sales results.



Jane Elfers, president and CEO of Children’s Place, focused on new initiatives in her comments:



"Our new inventory allocation and replenishment tool went live for back to school 2015 and our digital initiatives continue to gain traction as we focus on driving improvements in customer acquisition, retention and engagement,” said Elfers. “In our international business, we opened our first retail store and our first shop in shop location, and also launched an e-commerce business in India this month.”