Tom Kingsbury, Kohl’s chief executive officer, said, “Our first quarter results did not meet our expectations and are not reflective of the direction we are heading with our strategic initiatives. Regular price sales increased year-over-year, with early success in underpenetrated categories, positive trends in our Women’s business, and continued strong growth in Sephora. However, lower clearance sales versus last year represented a more than 600 basis point drag on comparable sales. Importantly, we were able to deliver gross margin expansion, manage inventory down 13% and tightly control expenses in the quarter.”
“We continue to have high conviction in our strategy and believe that our key growth initiatives, including Sephora, home decor, gifting, impulse, and our upcoming partnership with Babies “R” Us, will contribute more meaningfully going forward. That said, we recognize we have more work to do in areas of our business. We are approaching our financial outlook for the year more conservatively given the first quarter underperformance and the ongoing uncertainty in the consumer environment,” Kingsbury continued.
*Net sales decreased 5.3% year-over-year, to $3.2 billion, with comparable sales down 4.4%
*Gross margin as a percentage of net sales was 39.5%, an increase of 48 basis points.
*Selling, general & administrative (SG&A) expenses decreased 0.8% year-over-year, to $1.2 billion. As a percentage of total revenue, SG&A expenses were 36.3%, an increase of 166 basis points year-over-year.
*Operating income was $43 million compared to $98 million in the prior year. As a percentage of total revenue, operating income was 1.3%, a decrease of 148 basis points year-over-year.
*Net loss was $27 million, or ($0.24) per diluted share. This compares to net income of $14 million, or $0.13 per diluted share in the prior year.
*Inventory was $3.1 billion, a decrease of 13% year-over-year.
*Operating cash flow was a use of $7 million as compared to a use of $202 million in the prior year.
details at: https://investors.kohls.com/news-releases/news-details/2024/Kohls-Reports-First-Quarter-Fiscal-2024-Financial-Results/default.aspx