Macy’s has announced another quarter of declines in sales and profits, representing its seventh in a row.
The US department store retailer saw net income fall to $15m in Q3 2016, while sales dipped 4.2% to $5.626bn from $5.874bn in the same quarter of 2015.
Macy’s said the reason behind the drop largely resulted from the closing of 41 of its underperforming stores at the end of 2015.
A setback is a setup for a comeback and that is why we continue to look with confidence at the close of 2016 and our longer-term outlook.
In the quarter, the retailer did open a few new stores, however, including a Macy’s store in Kapolei, Hawaii, a Macy’s Backstage store in San Antonio, Texas, and seven Bluemercury stores.
Macy’s has agreed a recent deal to sell its $248,000sqft Union Square Men’s building in San Francisco, California, for $250m.
It said it would use part of the proceeds to consolidate its men’s store into its main Union Square store. It is also planning to sell its Portland, Oregan, store for $54m.
Despite its financial struggles and bricks-and-mortar scale-back, Macy’s Chairman and CEO Terry Lundgren remained positive.
He said: “As we have said, a setback is a setup for a comeback and that is why we continue to look with confidence at the close of 2016 and our longer-term outlook.”
Macy’s remained confident about its full-year earnings and raised its sales guidance.
It said it now expects comparable sales for full-year 2016 on an owned plus licensed basis to decrease in the range of 2.5-3% compared with previous guidance of a decrease in the range of 3-4%.