Christopher & Banks Corporation Announces Engagement of Real Estate Consultant and New Director-Nominee
April 10 2019 - 6:30AM
Business Wire
- Engagement of Nationally Recognized
Real Estate Consultant Targeted with Goal of Additional Annualized
Occupancy Savings of $4 to $7 million –
- Reiterates Full Year Guidance for
Fiscal 2019 –
- Announces Allison Wing will be a
Director-Nominee at 2019 Annual Meeting of Stockholders –
Christopher & Banks Corporation (NYSE: CBK), a specialty
women’s apparel retailer, today announced the engagement of a
leading national third-party real estate consulting firm
specializing in lease restructuring to accelerate and increase
occupancy cost savings. The targeted goal of this engagement is
annualized savings of between $4 million and $7 million.
The Company also announced that it reiterates its full year
guidance for fiscal 2019 based on the recent improvement in
comparable sales trends and continued traction from ongoing
initiatives.
Keri Jones commented “We are pleased to see the improvement in
sales trends for fiscal March (which ended April 6th), following
challenging results in February. Customers have responded favorably
to our recent product assortments resulting in an increase in
conversion rates and units per transaction in fiscal March.”
For the full year of Fiscal 2019, the Company continues to
expect:
- Net sales growth of 2% to 3%;
- Gross margin expansion of 300 to 350
basis points;
- SG&A as a percentage of sales to
decline 150 to 200 basis points; and
- Inventory turns to improve as compared
to fiscal 2018.
The Company also announced that the Board of Directors has
nominated Allison Wing as a director-nominee for election at the
Company’s 2019 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, to be held June 26,
2019.
Ms. Wing is currently the Chief Marketing/Digital Officer for
Bright Health, a health insurance company. Previously, Ms. Wing
served as the Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President
of Digital Channels at Maurice’s Incorporated (a division of Ascena
Retail Group, Inc.) from August 2014 through May 2017. At
Maurice’s, Ms. Wing launched the company’s first multi-tender
loyalty program, developed the company’s first customer insights
data production platform, and launched their enterprise-wide
e-commerce platform. Prior to joining Maurice’s in 2014, Ms. Wing
was the CEO and founder of giggle, Inc., a multichannel retailer,
wholesaler and licenser of baby products. Ms. Wing is also on the
Board of Directors of Casey’s General Stores, Inc.
“Ali will bring extensive experience and knowledge of digital
marketing, omni-channel retail and customer insights to our Board
of Directors”, said Ms. Jones. “Her perspective and guidance will
be a tremendous asset to our business”.
About Christopher & Banks
Christopher & Banks Corporation is a Minneapolis-based
national specialty retailer featuring exclusively designed
privately branded women’s apparel and accessories. As of April 10,
2019, the Company operates 457 stores in 45 states consisting of
313 MPW stores, 81 Outlet stores, 33 Christopher & Banks
stores, and 30 stores in its women’s plus size clothing division CJ
Banks. The Company also operates the www.christopherandbanks.com
eCommerce website.
Keywords: Christopher & Banks, CJ Banks, Women’s
Clothing, Plus Size Clothing, Petites, Extended Sizes, Outfits.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release may constitute
forward-looking statements, made pursuant to the safe harbor
provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995,
which reflect our current views with respect to certain events that
could have an effect on our future performance. The forward-looking
statements relate to expectations concerning matters that are not
historical facts and may use the words “will”, "expect",
"anticipate", "plan", "intend", "project", "believe", “should”,
"drive" "in order to" and similar expressions. Except for
historical information, matters discussed in this press release may
be considered forward-looking statements.
These forward-looking statements are based largely on
information currently available to our management and our current
expectations, assumptions, plans, estimates, judgments and
projections about our business and our industry, and are subject to
a number of uncertainties and risks, as well as assumptions that,
if they do not fully materialize or prove incorrect, could cause
the Company's future performance and financial results to differ
materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking
statements. We cannot guarantee their accuracy or our future
performance, and there are a number of known and unknown risks,
uncertainties, contingencies, and other factors (many of which are
outside our control) that could cause actual results to differ
materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking
statements. Accordingly, there is no assurance that our
expectations will, in fact, be achieved or that our estimates or
assumptions will be correct, and we caution investors and all
others not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking
statements.
Important factors that could cause actual results to differ
materially from estimates or projections contained in the
forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those
factors described in Item 1A, “Risk Factors” and in the
“Forward-Looking Statements” disclosure in Item 7 “Management’s
Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of
Operations” of our latest annual report on Form 10-K. All
forward-looking statements that are made or attributable to us are
expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary notice.
The Company does not undertake to publicly update or revise its
forward-looking statements even if experience or future changes
make it clear that projected results expressed or implied in such
statements will not be realized.
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COMPANY:Keri JonesPresident and Chief Executive Officer(763)
551-5000
INVESTOR RELATIONS:Jean FontanaICR, Inc.(646) 277-1214