Christopher & Banks cuts Q3 sales forecast

Minneapolis - Christopher & Banks Corp. is cutting its sales forecast for the third quarter of fiscal 2014, based on sales trends to date for the quarter. The company believes sales have been negatively impacted by continued softness in mall traffic and lower than expected sales from its September fashion show, as the demand for fashion merchandise exceeded planned inventory levels, as well as due to late receipts associated with the West Coast port disruptions.



For the third quarter of fiscal 2014, Christopher & Banks now expects total net sales to be in the range of $114 million to $118 million, as compared to its prior guidance of between $122 million to $124 million in net sales and $118.1 million of net sales in the prior year’s third quarter. Christopher & Banks also cut its forecasts for third quarter gross margin improvement and SG&A dollars, and increased its forecast for inventory.



“We believe that the continued softness in traffic trends, coupled with the difficult overall retail environment, have adversely affected our sales as compared to our initial expectations for the quarter,” said LuAnn Via, president and CEO of Christopher & Banks. “We are operating our business with the assumption that the current environment will remain challenging and promotional activity will continue to be aggressive, creating continued pressure on sales and margins. That said, we have seen recent improvements in the sell-through of fashion merchandise and continued strong margins in our core offerings.”