Tuesday Morning expects 3Q loss after sales decline

DALLAS — Tuesday Morning reported net sales for the third quarter ended March 31 were $172.7 million compared with $174.3 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2011, a decrease of 0.9%. Comparable-store sales for the quarter ended March 31 decreased by 3.2% comprised of a 1.8% decrease in traffic and a 1.4% decrease in ticket.

Based on the third quarter sales results, the company currently expects the loss per share for the three month period ended March 31 to be in the range of 9 cents to 11 cents. The loss per share was 8 cents for the quarter ended March 31, 2011.

Kathleen Mason, President and CEO stated, "We are focused on our key marketing, e-commerce and real estate initiatives. We believe these initiatives, particularly our new online platform which is on track to go live this quarter, will begin to impact our business during our fourth fiscal quarter and increasingly in fiscal 2013. We ended the quarter with strong cash and inventory positions that were in line with our expectations."