FORT
MYERS, Fla., Jan. 9, 2023
/PRNewswire/ -- Chico's FAS, Inc. (NYSE: CHS) (the "Company" or
Chico's FAS) today reported holiday sales and updated its outlook
for fiscal 2022 fourth quarter sales and earnings. Molly Langenstein, Chico's FAS Chief Executive
Officer and President, and Patrick ("PJ") Guido, Chico's FAS Chief
Financial Officer, will discuss continued progress on the Company's
strategic plan and these results at the ICR Conference today at
8:00 a.m. ET. As previously
announced, a live webcast and associated replay will available at
https://wsw.com/webcast/icr8/chs/1463316 and on the Investor
Relations section of the Company's website at www.chicosfas.com,
respectively.
Langenstein commented, "Our customer led, product obsessed,
digital first, operationally excellent strategy is working. Our
brand portfolio continues to deliver strong results and we are
confident in our strategic direction as we close out an exceptional
year for our company. For the nine-week holiday period ending
December 31, 2022, total net sales
grew 4.9% over last year and comparable sales grew 5.3% over last
year. Chico's sales remained healthy, and sales trends at
Soma continued to improve quarter over quarter. As we entered
December, White House Black Market sales softened as we had sold
through newer assortments and were left with leaner inventories and
styles that did not match up with customer demand. We are on
track to post low-to-mid-single-digit total Company comparable
sales growth for the fourth quarter on top of 29% comparable sales
growth in last year's fourth quarter."
The Company has updated its fourth quarter outlook and now
expects total net sales to range from $505
million to $515 million and
diluted earnings per share to range from ($0.02) to $0.00.
"Entering 2023, we remain confident in our brand portfolio and
our ability to deliver strong results for the year and over the
long-term. Customer demand is growing across all three brands
and our total inventory levels also remain well in line with sales,
with December on-hand inventory up 1% to last year. We expect
to enter fiscal 2023 with clean inventory and a strong balance
sheet and are well positioned to deliver fashion and newness to
meet growing customer demand across all three brands," Langenstein
concluded.
The Company will release its full fourth quarter and fiscal 2022
results at a later time.
ABOUT CHICO'S FAS, INC.
Chico's FAS is a Florida-based
fashion company founded in 1983 on Sanibel Island, Fla. The Company
reinvented the fashion retail experience by creating fashion
communities anchored by service, which put the customer at the
center of everything we do. As one of the leading fashion retailers
in North America, Chico's FAS is a
company of three unique brands - Chico's, White House Black Market
and Soma - each thriving in their own white space, founded by
women, led by women, providing solutions that millions of women say
give them confidence and joy.
Our Company has a passion for fashion, and each day, we provide
clothing, shoes and accessories, intimate apparel and expert
styling in our brick-and-mortar boutiques, digital online boutiques
and through StyleConnect®, the Company's customized, branded,
digital styling tool that enables customers to conveniently shop
wherever, whenever and however they prefer.
As of October 29, 2022, the
Company operated 1,261 stores in the U.S. and sold merchandise
through 58 international franchise locations in Mexico and 2 domestic franchise airport
locations. The Company's merchandise is also available at
www.chicos.com, www.chicosofftherack.com, www.whbm.com and
www.soma.com.
To learn more about Chico's FAS, please visit our corporate
website at www.chicosfas.com. The information on our corporate
website is not, and shall not be deemed to be, a part of this press
release or incorporated into our federal securities law
filings.
SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION
REFORM ACT OF 1995
This press release contains statements concerning our current
expectations, assumptions, plans, estimates, judgments and
projections about our business and our industry and other
statements that are not historical facts. These statements,
including without limitation the section captioned "Updates Fiscal
2022 Fourth Quarter Outlook," are "forward-looking statements"
within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
of 1995. In most cases, words or phrases such as "aim,"
"anticipates," "believes," "could," "estimates," "expects,"
"intends," "target," "may," "will," "plans," "path," "outlook,"
"project," "should," "strategy," "potential," "confident" and
similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. These
forward-looking statements are based largely on information
currently available to our management and are subject to various
risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ
materially from historical results or those expressed or implied by
such forward-looking statements. Although we believe our
expectations are based on reasonable estimates and assumptions,
they are not guarantees of performance. There is no assurance that
our expectations will occur 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. Factors
that could cause actual results to differ include, but are not
limited to, those described in Item 1A, "Risk Factors" in our most
recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and, from time to time, in Item
1A, "Risk Factors" of our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and the
following: The effects of the pandemic, including uncertainties
about its depth and duration, new variants of COVID-19 that have
emerged, the speed, efficacy and availability of vaccines and
treatments, its impact on general economic conditions, human
capital management, consumer behavior and discretionary spending,
the effectiveness of any actions taken in response to the pandemic,
and the impact of the pandemic on our manufacturing operations,
shipping costs and timelines and the global supply chain; the
ability of our suppliers, logistics providers, vendors and
landlords, to meet their obligations to us in light of financial
stress, labor shortages, liquidity challenges, bankruptcy filings
by other industry participants, and supply chain and other
disruptions; increases in unemployment rates and labor shortages;
our ability to sufficiently staff our retail stores; changes in
general economic conditions, including but not limited to, consumer
confidence and consumer spending patterns; the impacts of rising
inflation, gasoline prices, and interest rates on consumer
spending; market disruptions including pandemics or significant
health hazards, severe weather conditions, natural disasters,
terrorist activities, financial crises, political crises, war and
other military conflicts (such as the war in Ukraine) or other major events, or the
prospect of these events, including their impact on consumer
spending, inflation and the global supply chain; domestic and
global political and social conditions and the potential impacts of
geopolitical turmoil or conflict; shifts in consumer behavior, and
our ability to adapt, identify and respond to new and changing
fashion trends and customer preferences, and to coordinate product
development with buying and planning; changes in the general or
specialty retail or apparel industries, including significant
decreases in market demand and the overall level of spending for
women's private branded clothing and related accessories; our
ability to secure and maintain customer acceptance of in-store and
online concepts and styles; increased competition in the markets in
which we operate, including for, among other things, premium mall
space; our ability to remain competitive with customer shipping
terms and costs; decreases in customer traffic at malls, shopping
centers and our stores; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange
rates and commodity prices; significant increases in the costs of
manufacturing, raw materials, transportation, importing,
distribution, labor and advertising; decreases in the quality of
merchandise received from suppliers and increases in delivery times
for receiving such merchandise; our ability to appropriately manage
our store fleet, including the closing of underperforming stores
and opening of new stores, and our ability to achieve the expected
results of any such store openings or store closings; our ability
to appropriately manage inventory and allocation processes and
leverage targeted promotions; our ability to maintain cost saving
discipline; our ability to operate our retail websites in a
profitable manner; our ability to successfully identify and
implement additional sales and distribution channels; our ability
to successfully execute and achieve the expected results of our
business, brand strategies, brand awareness programs, and
merchandising and marketing programs including, but not limited to,
the Company's three-year strategic growth plan, retail fleet
optimization plan, sales initiatives, multi-channel strategies and
four strategic pillars which are: 1) customer led; 2) product
obsessed; 3) digital first; and 4) operationally excellent; our
ability to utilize our distribution center and other support
facilities in an efficient and effective manner; our reliance on
sourcing from foreign suppliers and significant adverse economic,
labor, political or other shifts (including adverse changes in
tariffs, taxes or other import regulations, particularly with
respect to China, or legislation
prohibiting certain imports from China); U.S. and foreign governmental actions
and policies and changes thereto; the continuing performance,
implementation and integration of our management information
systems; our ability to successfully update our information
systems; the impact of any system failure, cyber security or other
data security breaches, including any security breaches resulting
in the theft, transfer, or unauthorized disclosure of customer,
employee, or company information; our ability to comply with
applicable domestic and foreign information security and privacy
laws, regulations and technology platform rules or other
obligations related to data privacy and security; our ability to
attract, hire, train, motivate and retain qualified employees in an
inclusive environment; our ability to successfully recruit
leadership or transition members of our senior management team;
increased public focus and opinion on environmental, social and
governance ("ESG") initiatives and our ability to meet any
announced ESG goals and initiatives; future unsolicited offers to
buy the Company and actions of activist shareholders and others and
our ability to respond effectively; our ability to secure and
protect our intellectual property rights and to protect our
reputation and brand images; unanticipated obligations or changes
in estimates arising from new or existing litigation, income taxes
and other regulatory proceedings; unanticipated adverse changes in
legal, regulatory or tax laws; and our ability to comply with the
terms of our credit agreement, including the restrictive provisions
limiting our flexibility in operating our business and obtaining
additional credit on commercially reasonable terms.
These factors should be considered in evaluating forward-looking
statements contained herein. All forward-looking statements that
are made or attributable to us are expressly qualified in their
entirety by this cautionary notice. The forward-looking statements
included herein are only made as of the date of this press release.
We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any
forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise.
Investor Relations Contact:
Tom Filandro
ICR, Inc.
(646) 277-1235
tom.filandro@icrinc.com
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SOURCE Chico's FAS, Inc.