PLANO, Texas–Hindered by the tough economic climate, J.C. Penney posted sales and earnings declines for the fourth quarter as big-ticket home goods continued to be one of the poorest-performing categories.
However, the retailer said during a conference it has already generated strong early results from the home portion of American Living, the Polo Ralph Lauren program that rolled out this week.
For the fourth quarter ended Feb. 2, sales fell 4.1 percent to $6.4 billion. Comparable-store sales fell 2.3 percent.
Net income fell 9.9 percent to $431 million from the year-ago period.
Given the weak economic climate, the retailer will slow store expansion and open 36 stores this year versus the 50 planned.
“We’ve planned more appropriately to the [economic] environment in the first half of the year,” said Mike Ullman, chairman and chief executive officer.
During a press event to launch the American Living line this week, Jeffrey Allison, executive vice president of home and custom decorating, told HFN that “window treatments [from the collection] have been enormously popular out of the box,” as well as the 700-thread count sheets.
