Liz Claiborne

Liz Claiborne Inc. (New York) reported an 8.7 percent increase in earnings per share for the second quarter 2005.

Net sales increased 7.1 percent. Retail net sales increased 11.5 percent, which the company attributed to: a $23 million net increase primarily driven by higher comparable-store sales in its specialty retail business (including a 30.8 percent comparable-store sales increase in its Lucky Brand business); and the net addition over the last 12 months of 44 specialty retail and 30 outlet stores, reflecting in part the opening of 16 Sigrid Olsen, 13 Mexx Europe, 11 Lucky Brand and 5 Mexx USA specialty retail stores, and 18 Liz Claiborne and 14 Mexx outlet stores in the United States, Canada and Europe.

Comparable-store sales in the company-operated stores increased by 1 percent overall, driven by a 10.7 percent increase in the specialty retail business, partially offset by a 5.7 percent decrease in the outlet business.

The company ended the quarter with a total of 303 outlet stores, 283 specialty retail stores and 610 international concession stores.

“We are pleased to report these very strong second quarter results which once again were driven by the strength of our balanced and diversified portfolio and disciplined execution of our core strategies,” said chairman and ceo Paul Charron. “Our ability to successfully execute our multi-brand, multi-channel, multi-geography diversification strategy enabled us to achieve record sales . . . which exceeded the upper end of our forecasted range.

“We are especially pleased that more than 70 percent of the sales increase in the quarter was derived from growth in our existing businesses,” Charron continued, “with significant contributions from numerous brands across our portfolio. Notable performance was generated by our Mexx Europe, Juicy Couture, J.H. Collectibles, Axcess women’s and licensed DKNY Jeans (both men’s and women’s) wholesale apparel businesses, our cosmetics, Liz Claiborne and licensed Kenneth Cole accessories wholesale non-apparel businesses, our Mexx Canada and Lucky Brand retail businesses and our licensing business.”