TJX still attracting cost-conscious shoppers

Consumers may be shying away from department stores but they are still flocking to off-price retailers such as TJX, which posted impressive sales and revenue growth in the second quarter.

TJX Inc. said the elimination of a debt extinguishment loss and lower interest expenses helped push net income up 6% to $549.33 million, from $517.62 million the same period the prior fiscal year.Net sales rose 6% to $7.36 billion from $6.92 billion. Same-store sales rose 6% on higher traffic. This included 4% growth in TJ Maxx same-store sales and 9% growth in Home Goods same-store sales in the U.S., as well as 12% growth in TJX Canada same-store sales and 5% growth in TJX Europe same-store sales.

“We are extremely pleased that our momentum continued in the second quarter,” said Carol Meyrowitz, chairman and CEO. “Our 6% consolidated same-store sales growth and 7% adjusted EPS growth significantly exceeded our expectations. It was great to see that same-store sales were entirely driven by customer traffic – our fifth consecutive quarter of sequential traffic improvement – and that we had strong sales across all of our divisions.”

Off-price retailers such as TJX have done better than the overall retail industry lately consumers remain cost-conscious.

The TJX Companies Inc. operatesmore than 3,300 stores in seven countries and three e-commerce sites.