TAILORED BRANDS IMPROVES PROFITABILITY IN THIRD QUARTER

Men's Wearhouse
by Brian Lipton Dec 08, 2016

Men's WearhouseTailored Brands, Inc., owner of such brands as Men’s Wearhouse and Jos. A Bank, has announced consolidated financial results for the fiscal third quarter ended October 29, 2016.

Third quarter 2016 GAAP diluted earnings per share were $0.58, compared to a loss of $0.56 in the same period a year ago.  Total net sales decreased 2.1%, or $18.5 million, to $846.9 million, and retail segment net sales decreased by 4.7%, or $37.7 million.  Corporate apparel sales increased by 30.0% or $19.2 million.

Men’s Wearhouse had a net decline of 0.8 percent, and a comparable sales change of 0.1 percent; Jos A. Bank had a net sales decline of 16.6 percent, and comparable sales decline of 9.8 percent; K&G had a net sales decline of 2.6 percent, and a comparable sales change of 3 percent.

During the third quarter, the company closed 83 stores, including 74 Men’s Wearhouse and Tux stores, bringing its total year-to-date closures to 187 stores.  Approximately 63 stores are also set to shut their doors in the fourth quarter, said Doug Ewert, president and chief executive officer of Tailored Brands.

“Our improved profitability this quarter reflects solid progress on our cost reduction initiatives as we continue to navigate the turnaround of Jos. A. Bank and a choppy retail environment,” said Ewert. “While the retail environment remains challenging, we are pleased with the response to premium clothing, custom clothing and performance wear, including the recently launched Kenneth Cole AWEAR-TECH at Men’s Wearhouse.  We plan to drive greater awareness of these innovative offerings and view them as significant growth drivers in 2017.  In addition, we continued to strengthen our omnichannel capabilities during the third quarter, which we believe will help drive additional traffic as we make it easy for customers to shop with us both online and in-store.”

Speaking about the Jos. A Bank business, Ewert added: “While there is still work to be done, we are encouraged by the healthier trends we are seeing at Jos. A. Bank that reflect our investments in elevating the brand and customer experience through marketing, merchandising and a more engaging sales experience.”

Looking ahead, Ewert said the company is updating its fiscal 2016 guidance upward. “Based on our third quarter results and our outlook for the balance of the year, we are updating full year 2016 adjusted EPS expectations to $1.70 to $1.85 per diluted share from our previous range of $1.55 to $1.85 per diluted share.  Our updated full year guidance reflects our expectation for Jos. A. Bank comparable sales to be up mid-to-high-single-digits and Men’s Wearhouse comparable sales to be down slightly in the fourth quarter.”