Le Château sales continue to fall in Q3, closes more stores

By

Jennifer Braun

Published
Dec 12, 2017

Canadian retailer Le Château reported another difficult quarter on Friday including a double-digit sales decrease and net loss of $7.1 million.

 
Sales for the third quarter ended October 28, 2017 amounted to $48.7 million as compared with $55.4 million for the third quarter ended October 29, 2016, down 12.1 percent, with 26 fewer stores in operation. Comparable store sales decreased 5.6 percent, while comparable regular store sales fell 5.7 percent and comparable outlet store sales fell 5.4 percent.
 
Included in comparable store sales are online sales – the retailer’s only bright spot - which increased 14 percent for the third quarter. 

The company blamed the sales fall on unseasonably warm weather during the third quarter causing a negative impact on the sale of fall warmwear products. Still, special occasion categories continued to perform well.
 
Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter of 2017 included a loss of $2.5 million, compared to $3.3 million loss for the same period last year.
 
The fashion retailer for men and women is continuing to recalibrate its retail network, by closing underperforming stores and is focused on its e-commerce business in order to improve margins.
 
During the first nine months of 2017, the company closed 17 underperforming stores as planned. The Company is planning to close 8 additional stores during the remainder of 2017 for a total of 25 store closings this year, up from previously announced plans to close 21.  
 
The Canadian specialty retailer currently operates 170 stores.