Ascena Retail Group, leading retailer of apparel for women, has announced its financial results for second quarter ended January 28, 2017. During the period under review, net sales were US $ 1.748 billion compared to US $ 1.842 billion in the year-ago period. The decrease in sales reflected the impact of the 4 per cent comparable sales decline.
Gross margin on a GAAP basis decreased to US $ 946 million, or 54.1 per cent of sales, for the second quarter of fiscal 2017 compared to US $ 968 million, or 52.6 per cent of sales in the year-ago period.
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Commenting on the results, David Jaffe, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ascena Retail Group said, “Reflecting on our second quarter results, we saw a continuation of trends that have been in place for some time. While we remain generally pleased with selling performance during peaks, our base business remained soft due to ongoing store traffic headwinds and overall customer price sensitivity, which have become persistent issues impacting our larger sector. While our second quarter comp sales were in line with our guidance, we were forced to be much more promotional than planned to achieve this level of performance.”
Jaffe added that the company continues to see the disruptive trend toward e-commerce transactions, and the growing influence of online engagement on traditional brick and mortar activity across our sector.
