Claire's expects to end year on high sales note

CHICAGO — Fashion jewelry retailer Claire's Stores said that it expects to report a 13.4% spike in net sales to $493 million for the fourth quarter over the same period last year, thanks in part to an additional week of net sales and a comparable-store sales increase of 5.4%.

For the full year, Claire's expects to report net sales of $1.6 billion for fiscal 2012, an increase of 4.1%, compared with fiscal 2011.

Consolidated same-store sales increased 1.8% for the fiscal year.

Claire's most recently made some changes to its executive department, adding former Sam's Club exec, Linda Hefner Filler, as North America president and Dina Keenan as chief marketing officer.