Children’s Place reports Q2 adjusted EPS 30c vs. ($2.12) last year

Reports Q2 revenue $319.7M vs. $345.6M last year. Comparable retail sales decreased 7.2% for the quarter. Muhammad Umair, President and Interim Chief Executive Officer said, “During the second quarter we proactively made certain strategic and operational changes to improve the profitability of the business and provide a foundation for future growth and we were pleased with the results. While we anticipated that these efforts would provide pressure to topline sales, we drove significant improvements in gross profit margin versus the prior year’s second quarter and sequential improvement in margin for two quarters, which is particularly important moving from the first quarter to the second quarter. In addition, we were also able to significantly decrease Adjusted SG&A expenses as we reduced payroll costs and eliminated unprofitable marketing spend, all of which has combined to show more than a $39 million improvement in Adjusted operating income despite the lower top line sales. While these first steps to improve operating results have been promising, we still believe that we have significant work ahead of us in future quarters as we rationalize profitability.”