Easter Timing Lifts March Sales Results

The earlier timing of Easter provided the lift retailers were expecting and hoping for in March. With the holiday falling on April 5, 15 days earlier than in 2014, holiday-related sales and traffic got pushed into March but, as stores cautioned, will be largely missing in April. L Brands estimated that the timing issue benefited March results by 3 to 4 points, helping the company and its Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works nameplates all register 9 percent gains in March comparable sales, well above the analysts’ consensus estimates for gains of about 6 percent at each, according to Thomson Reuters. The company expects to give back some of those increases this month, when it projects that comparable sales will be flat to down at a low-single-digit rate. Amie Preston, L Brands’ chief investor relations officer, said that merchandise margins were up year-on-year at both Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works. Inventories per square foot fell 10 percent. Stein Mart Inc. and Cato Corp. both reported double-digit gains in comps – 11.2 and 12 percent, respectively – versus expectations of 4 percent gains. Stein Mart noted that most of the regions in which it does business had high-single or double-digit comp increases, “while the

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