Foothill Ranch-based mall clothing retailer Wet Seal Inc. reported a disappointing drop in December sales and warned that profits for the current quarter could come in at the low end of expectations.
Wet Seal, which runs stores for teen girls and young women, reported a 2.1% drop in same-store sales for the critical holiday month.
Analysts were expecting a 2.7% rise in sales at stores open at least a year.
The company’s dominant Wet Seal chain for teen girls drove the decline with a 3.7% same-store sales drop.
The smaller Arden B. chain for young women posted a 8.5% rise.
Wet Seal saw shoppers put off holiday buying until the days before Christmas, which couldn’t make up for softer sales in early December, Chief Executive Ed Thomas said.
The company also had to entice buyers with discounted sales, which stands to impact quarterly profits, it said.
For the three months through January, Wet Seal now said it projects profits to come in at $3 million, the low end of a prior forecast of $3 million to $5 million.
Analysts on average had been expecting a quarterly profit of $5 million.
Wet Seal’s December was on par with that of other retailers, many of which missed expectations for the critical month.
Nationally, retailers such as Target Corp., Macy’s Inc. and others were hurt by an East Coast blizzard and cautious, reluctant shoppers.
