Hibbett Sports Inc., an American athletic speciality retailer, has released its financial report for the second quarter ended July 29. Its net sales decreased 9.2 per cent to settle at US $ 188 million compared with US $ 206.9 million for the second quarter ended July 30, 2016. Comparable store sales dropped 11.7 per cent.
The company’s gross margin was 28.9 per cent of the total net sales during the reporting period against 33.0 per cent for the same quarter of 2016.
“A very difficult retail environment coupled with a significant decline in transactions affected gross margin during the second quarter,” commented Jeff Rosenthal, President and Chief Executive Officer.
The apparel retailer posted a net loss of US $ 3.2 million in the second quarter compared with net income of US $ 6.5 million for the same quarter last year.
Store operating, selling and administrative expenses remained 28.5 per cent of net sales for the second quarter against 25.9 per cent of net sales for the corresponding quarter of 2016.
Despite a challenging retail environment ahead, the company is encouraged with the progress being made on internal initiatives, most notably its new e-commerce websites.
Hibbett Sports now expects its comparable store sales for the entire fiscal to remain in the negative mid to high single digit range. The company earlier expected its comparable store sales to be in the range of (-) 1 per cent to (+) 1 per cent.
