In a lovely bit of balance, both retail and direct first quarter sales for J. Crew Group Inc. rose 20% over first-quarter 2009’s level.
Retail sales rose to $290 million from $270.7 million, while direct sales reached $114.4 million, up from $95.4 million. And the retail unit needed extra locations to hit its 20%: Comparable store sales rose 15%.
Sales for the total company were up – what else? – 20%, hitting $413.9 million. The company’s gross profit as a percentage of revenue was 49%, or 202.6 million, up from 42.2%, or $145.9 million.
Better still, net income for the apparel, shoes and accessories marketer did not increase by 20. Instead, it more than doubled, hitting $44.7 million up from $20.4 million in first-quarter 2009.
Chalk up part of the direct channel’s success to an increase in page counts. During an earnings call Tracy Gardner, president of the J Crew retail and direct divisions noted that page counts had increased by single digits.
“It’s really a function of three things: one, we're seeing our customer file strengthen,” Garner said. “We're acquiring new customers at quite a clip. We're also seeing an opportunity to mail deeper into our retail-only file, which we've done more aggressively as we've taken on new customers in the retail channel. And then thirdly we're just seeing new incremental growth in opportunities like shoes, Crewcuts [the company’s kids’ line] and the non-apparel business collection. So we only add space where we see we can make money, and we're seeing three opportunities to really go for it.”
