L Brands net sales up 7% in March

By

Robin Driver

Published
Apr 13, 2018

Columbus, Ohio-based fashion group L Brands, Inc., owner of Victoria’s Secret, PINK, Bath & Body Works, La Senza and Henri Bendel, released its March 2018 sales data on Thursday, reporting mid-single-digit increases in both net sales and comps.
 

Net sales rose 7% to $1.020 billion in the five-week period ended April 7, 2018, compared to the same period in the previous year, when sales totaled $951.4 million. Comparable sales increased 4% compared to the prior year period.

In the nine weeks ended April 7, 2018 net sales came to $1.874 billion, a 9% increase compared to the $1.717 billion reported for the same period in 2017. Comparable sales, on the other hand, rose 3% compared to the nine-week period ended April 1, 2017.

While the group’s sales grew from $12.574 billion to $12.632 billion in fiscal 2017, comps fell 3%, a disappointing performance that L Brands attributed to its Victoria’s Secret brand, whose results were still suffering from its exit from the swimwear and apparel categories in 2016.

Net income for 2017 fell to $983.0 million, compared to $1.158 billion in 2016, and the company issued a disappointing outlook for the first quarter of 2018, predicting earnings per share between $0.15 and $0.20.
 
Since then, the group saw net sales rise 11.5% in February, with Victoria’s Secret experiencing a slight recovery and reporting a 2% increase in sales.

It was also revealed last month that Leslie H. Wexner, CEO and founder of L Brands, had taken a $9 million salary hit in line with the company’s disappointing results in 2017, bringing his total remuneration for the year down to $5.7 million, well below the median CEO compensation among the company’s peers.

L Brands has maintained its previously mentioned guidance for Q1 2018.