Dillard's bounces back in 3Q

HTT Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 11/12/2010 10:19:47 AM

Little Rock, Ark. - Gross margin improvement and inventory management helped push Dillard's third quarter profit up significantly.

Net income for the quarter ended Oct. 30 was $14.4 million, or 22 cents per share, up 80% from the year-ago period's profit of $8.0 million, or 11 cents per share. Gross margin for retail operations - excluding the company's CDI Contractors construction business - improved by about 150 basis points.

Merchandise sales were flat: $1.321 billion compared to $1.316 billion in last year's 3Q. Including the CDI business, total sales slipped 1.1% to $1.344 billion.