May Co.

The May Department Stores Co. (St. Louis) has reported a 46 percent decrease in net earnings for its first quarter ended April 30, 2005.

First quarter 2005 earnings include store divestiture costs of $9 million. Excluding these costs, the first quarter decrease was 38 percent.

The department store retailer, acquired earlier this year by Federated Department Stores (Cincinnati), said the integration of Marshall Field’s continues on track and all system conversions were completed in April 2005.

Net sales for the first quarter were up 13.7 percent. Same-store sales decreased 5.1 percent.

“Our 2005 first quarter results did not meet our expectations,” said chairman, president and ceo John Dunham. “Sales of our proprietary ladies’ and men’s apparel brands were among our weakest performing categories, and during the quarter we took incremental markdowns to keep our proprietary apparel inventories current.”

May opened one new department store during the quarter, a Robinsons-May store in El Centro, Calif. Seven additional department stores are planned for 2005: three Foley’s stores, in Loveland, Colo., San Antonio and Dallas/Fort Worth; two Kaufmann’s stores, in Pittsburgh and Columbus, Ohio; a Robinsons-May store in Simi Valley, Calif.; and a Hecht’s store in N. Charlotte, N.C.

May’s Bridal Group opened two David’s Bridal stores and six After Hours Formalwear stores in the quarter. The Bridal Group plans to open an additional 16 David’s Bridal stores and 14 After Hours stores by year-end.

The May-Federated merger agreement is expected to close in the third quarter of 2005. May recorded approximately $4 million of merger-related expenses in the 2005 first quarter.