Wednesday, April 3, 2013

J.Crew Announces Latest Quarter Results

J.Crew recently shared their results for the latest quarter (Q4 2012). The following are some highlights from the investors call (click here to read the Seeking Alpha article in its entirety):
  • For the fourth quarter, total revenues increased 21%, with comparable company sales increasing 11% and direct sales increasing 27%.
  • For the year, total revenues surpassed the $2 billion mark, increasing 20% over last year. 
  • Comparable company sales increased 13%, and our direct sales increased 19%.
    Total revenues increased 21% to $643 million.
  • Direct sales increased 27%, which includes our J.Crew factory and Madewell direct businesses. 
  • Gross profit for the fourth quarter was $247 million, with gross profit margin increasing 60 basis points to 38.4%.
  • Our 2013 plan includes 15 North American stores, including 4 in Canada and 1 store in the U.K. 
  • As mentioned during our last call, we signed a lease for our Regent Street store in London, which will open in the fourth quarter this year in time for the holidays.
  • We plan to open 13 new factory stores in 2013 including 1 location in Canada, which is in line with our target of approximately 10% square footage growth per year
  • Turning to the Madewell. We opened 17 new stores in 2012 and now operate 48 Madewell locations. 
  • We will continue to expand our Madewell footprint in 2013, with plans to open 17 new stores and continued growth in our madewell.com business.
  • ...we're seeing the trends go online in a much stronger way. I mean ... the customer's shopping seamlessly, I'd say, across in-store and online. But we're absolutely seeing a trend towards the direct business, which is exciting.
  • ...a shift in our marketing strategy, where we're redeploying some of the dollars that we had previously used for our catalog marketing into other forms of marketing, whether it be advertising or digital marketing. So that's sort of the high-level, I think, strategy around how we're shifting our marketing expenditures between different formats.
Overall this is great news for our favorite retailer. They are performing very well!

Although I am surprised to hear they are reducing their catalog marketing in favor of other forms. It would explain why so many of us saw those inserts for J.Crew (& J.Crew Collection) in fashion magazines recently.

What are your thoughts on this latest news? Any points you found interesting?

7 comments:

  1. How about a Madewell store in Vancouver, please?

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  2. I'd like a J Crew store in Sydney, please!

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  3. I hope they don't stop sending out the Style Guides.

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  4. I wouldn't be surprised if they came out with fewer catalogs, maybe four to six a year.

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  5. I would be sad to stop getting Style Guides because they make me happier than any of the 15 magazines I get in the mail each month. But it makes sense for them to do fewer catalogs if they are seeing customers "seamlessly" shopping across channels and online is up that much.

    Those are some very strong numbers, esp same store sales.

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  6. Maybe they could just incorporate the crewcuts and guys versions of the style into the main version that would save money and still provide style guides for those of us that wait at the mailbox for them each month.

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  7. Apropos of nothing: When did Jenna cut her hair??? I don't think it looks good.

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