Tuesday Morning sales up, store count down

Tuesday Morning Corp. completed its turnaround initiative in the third quarter, closing 21 stores and narrowing its loss to $2.8 million.

The company also said that Melissa Phillips has been promoted to president and chief operating officer from executive vice president and general merchandise manager.

Tuesday Morning reported a net loss of $2.8 million, or 6 cents a share, in its fiscal third quarter ended March 31, compared with a loss of $8.4 million, or 20 cents a share, a year ago.Total sales increased 3.8 percent to $189.7 million from $182.9 million in the year-ago quarter. Same-store sales increased 6.5%.

Michael Rouleau, Chief Executive Officer, said: "Tuesday Morning delivered a strong comparable store sales increase of 6.5%, despite adverse weather conditions, moderation in our promotional levels and substantially higher clearance sales in the prior year period. Our broad and shallow merchandising initiative is driving strong sales growth and a significant reduction in markdowns. "While we continue to be extremely pleased with these recent business results, our progress on our Tuesday Morning Rebuilding Program is also proceeding on plan. Key elements of this program include relocating or closing underperforming stores, improving our supply chain, upgrading our systems, and enhancing our buying processes. The entire Tuesday Morning team is doing an outstanding job of executing in the near term to deliver strong results while at the same time rebuilding the Company for long term success."

Based in Dallas, Texas, the company opened its first store in 1974 and currently operates over 750 stores in 41 states.