The Talbots Inc. reported a net loss of $25 million for the second quarter, nearly doubling its net loss of $13.3 million in the prior year.
The direct marketer and retailer posted sales of $528 million for the quarter ended Aug. 2, an 8% decline from $572 million last year.
The Hingham, MA firm posted direct marketing sales of $102 million for the quarter, an increase over $100 million in the prior year.
The firm said its gross margin improved 190 basis points over prior year.
“This was a challenging quarter to drive top line sales, predominantly due to the change in our Talbots brand annual June clearance strategy, coupled with a difficult macro environment,” said CEO Trudy F. Sullivan, in a statement. “While a year-over-year shortfall in retail sales affected the quarter, results were largely offset by the Talbots brand merchandise gross margin expansion. However, given the heavy inventory position of the J. Jill brand, we took aggressive markdowns during the quarter, which hurt gross margin and our second quarter operating performance.”
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