The chief executive officers of two of Milwaukee’s largest retailers announced Monday they are pleased with the sales results for the nine-week holiday shopping period.
Kohl’s Corp.’s total and comparable sales increased 6.9 percent in November and December 2017, over the same period last year.
Kevin Mansell, Kohl’s chairman, CEO and president said all lines of business and all regions reported positive comp sales.
“As expected, growth in digital demand accelerated significantly in the holiday period from the year-to-date trend,” Mansell said. “In addition, we experienced positive sales in our stores driven by stronger traffic.”
Based on stronger than expected holiday sales and expectations for fiscal January, Kohl’s now expects its fiscal 2017 diluted earnings per share to be $4.10 to $4.20 versus its previous guidance of $3.72 to $3.92.
The Bon-Ton Stores, which struggled throughout 2017 and has not turned a yearly profit since 2010, actually saw a decrease of 2.9 percent in comparable store sales over the holiday period.
However, Bill Tracy, Bon-Ton president and CEO, said holiday sales were an improvement from the comparable store sales decrease of 6.6 percent reported in the third quarter.
“We are actively engaged in discussions with our debt holders in an effort to strengthen our capital structure to support the business going forward,” Tracy said.
Total sales for the nine-week November and December period for Bon-Ton were $720.8 million compared to sales of $752.1 million in the prior year period.
Bon-Ton’s best performing categories over the period were cosmetics, children’s, outerwear and fine jewelry.
