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Ross Stores chief operating officer Michael Hartshorn said the off-price retail company will be “highly dependent on how China comes back from their shutdown,” speaking to Wall Street analysts Thursday after the chain reported a first-quarter profit miss on execution and merchandise mistakes.
In a Nutshell: Apparel sales outperformed home in the quarter, even though Easter sales failed to live up to the company’s plan.
CEO Barbara Rentler told analysts the Russia-Ukraine war “exacerbated inflationary pressures on the consumer not seen in 40 years,” adding that the year ahead “may prove to be more difficult than initially anticipated.”
Freight and fuel costs hampered the retailer’s business, though executives blamed their own missteps for the disappointing quarter.
“I wouldn’t really say that that there are problems in any pockets of inventory that we have. And we feel that we can we can improve the assortments. And we can improve our execution. At this point, you know, it’s really about us. It’s about us taking different actions in some of our assortments overall,” Rentler said.
Merchants are refocusing the fashion assortment to prioritize dress...