Tuesday Morning profit slashed, 2009 outlook lower 

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 8/26/2008 2:01:00 PM

Dallas – Off-price retailer Tuesday Morning saw profits cut in half for the fiscal year ended June 30, as sales fell 4.2% to $885.3 million; comps fell 7.6%.

Net income of $14.5 million or 35 cents per diluted share plummeted from net income of $30.0 million or 72 cents per diluted share in the prior year.

Pointing to the upside, Kathleen Mason, president and ceo of the 842-chain, said, “We were able to control inventory and expenses to partially offset the decline in demand.”

During this morning’s earnings call, evp and cfo Stephanie Bowman noted that traffic in the fourth quarter fell 11% while the average ticket was off 1.7%. She said that the company has taken a higher volume of markdowns, which was part of the plan to reduce the age of inventory.

For the fiscal year ahead, the company projects another sales falloff, to the range of $868 million to $878 million, with comps estimated to fall in mid-single digits, and diluted EPS be in the range of 21 cents to 27 cents.