Zale Q4 Revenues Up 6.1%, Net Loss $4.9 Mln

Specialty retailer Zale Corporation’s fiscal fourth quarter net loss grew to $4.9 million, or $0.15 per share, from $0.7 million, or $0.01 per share in the previous year. Comparable store sales for the quarter ended July 31 rose 6.1 percent.

Zale notes that the loss in the last quarter included a benefit association with the release of a vacation accrual of $7.7 million, and a gain on the sale of an unproductive asset of $3.5 million.

Fourth quarter revenues totaled $456 million, up from $430 million in the previous year period, an increase of 6.1 percent.

Revenue for the year were $2.14 billion, down a marginal 0.7 percent from the prior year, while comparable store sales decreased 0.7 percent for the fiscal.

“In the fourth quarter, we exceeded our expectations for sales, earnings and inventory reduction,” said CEO Neal Goldberg. “We sustained the strong momentum we achieved in our third quarter as we made improvements to our core assortment and executed our clearance strategy…This demonstrates our ability to continue to drive traffic and capture market share in a tough environment.”