The three months ending April 29, were “clearly a disappointing quarter,” Thorn said.
A contributing factor to the down quarter, according to Thorn, was the abrupt closure of United Furniture Industries in November. That company was Big Lots’ largest vendor. Sales of seasonal lawn and garden merchandise were also affected by bad weather.
“As a result, comp sales in Q1 were softer than we expected, particularly in March,” Thorn said on an earnings call with analysts. “Trends improved slightly in April, more in line with what we saw in February, but we had higher levels of late-quarter promotions that targeted seasonal and furniture divisions than we would have liked and [the] mix was unfavorable. Therefore, gross margins also came in lower than we expected.”
