Big Lots CEO says ‘focused on growing margin, reducing expenses’

Bruce Thorn, President and CEO of Big Lots stated, "Despite the extremely difficult consumer environment throughout 2022, we’ve taken action to strengthen and transform our business model. Against that backdrop, we made sequential progress to improve our margins, tightly manage expenses, and right-size our inventories over the last few quarters. Even though our furniture business was adversely impacted by the unexpected closure of our largest vendor, we were able to deliver fourth quarter sales and gross margins that were in line with guidance. Further, our year-over-year inventories came down materially to appropriate levels. We also saw favorability in SG&A, as we tightly managed costs, and have further strengthened our balance sheet through asset monetization efforts. I remain impressed by the agility and efforts of the team, who once again delivered on our targets under challenging conditions. As we enter 2023, we remain excited about the opportunity to provide more value to our customers, while improving our sales and earnings momentum as the year progresses. We continue to accelerate the transformation of our business through key action points. These include offering even more compelling opening price points and better bargains and treasures, which are easier to find and more convenient to shop. In addition, we will continue to take strides to meet our customer’s needs, grow our relevance, and be more efficient across our fleet. We remain focused on growing margin, reducing expenses, and making highly disciplined investment decisions."