Coach Q3 profit falls, but beats estimates

New York City Coach Tuesday reported a 29.3% decline in third-quarter profit to $114.9 million, hurt by the pullback in consumer discretionary spending and costs related to job cuts and store closures. However, the results were better than Wall Street expected, and the company showed improvement in North American same-store sales and traffic from the holiday quarter.

Sales in the quarter, ended March 28, fell less than 1% to $739.9 million, from $744.5 million.

Chief executive Lew Frankfort said the company is suspending remodeling of North American stores and slowing the pace of new store openings in the region to control costs.

At the same time, Coach is targeting expansion in faster-growing China markets, and Frankfort said he is considering entry into Western Europe, starting with England and France.