OREANDA-NEWS. Lands' End, Inc.today announced financial results for the first quarter ended April 29, 2016.

First Quarter Fiscal 2016 Highlights:

  • Net revenue was $273.4 million as compared to $299.4 million in the first quarter last year. Direct segment net revenue decreased 8.4% to $232.2 million. Retail segment net revenue decreased 10.4% to $41.2 million primarily driven by a 7.1% decrease in same store sales and a reduction in the number of Lands' End Shops at Sears.
  • Gross margin was 47.4% as compared to 49.0% in the first quarter last year due to deeper promotions as compared to last year in response to a difficult retail environment.
  • Net loss was $5.8 million, or $0.18 per share, as compared to net income of $1.7 million, or $0.05 per diluted share, in the first quarter last year.
  • Adjusted EBITDA was $0.6 million compared to $13.1 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2015.

Federica Marchionni, Lands' End's Chief Executive Officer, stated, "We continued to make progress across a number of initiatives; we remained focused on strengthening our core business and launching additional collections that we believe will drive future profitable growth. While we are encouraged by the initial wins, our financial results in the first quarter were impacted by the overall weakness in the retail environment, including aggressive discounting and promotional activity.  That said, during the quarter, we further executed our strategy by strengthening our traditional product categories and launching the Canvas by Lands' End collection. We also enhanced our brand image, including elevated marketing initiatives, the newly-launched multi-brand e-commerce website and refinements to our catalog strategy.  We continued to receive positive response from both existing and lapsed customers on our new product offering, marketing programs, and website enhancements, and while we expect the retail environment will be very challenging, we will remain focused on building on this momentum with sequential improvement beginning in the second quarter of fiscal 2016.”

Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Highlights

Cash and cash equivalents were $169.1 million on April 29, 2016, compared to $177.8 million on May 1, 2015. Net cash used in operations was $50.2 million for the 13 weeks ended April 29, 2016, compared to net cash used in operations of $31.5 million for the same period last year.

Inventory increased 8.9% to $309.9 million on April 29, 2016, from $284.6 million on May 1, 2015.

The Company had $161.8 million of availability under its asset-based senior secured credit facility and had long-term debt of $492.9 million as of April 29, 2016.