Federated: Earnings Double, Though Sales Are Flat

Federated Department Stores Inc. (Cincinnati) reported that diluted earnings per share from continuing operations nearly doubled for the third quarter of 2002. The retailer's announced 38 cents a share compares to diluted earnings of 20 cents a share in the same 13-week period last year.

For the quarter, sales were flat and same-store were down 2 percent.

For the first 39 weeks of the year, ending Nov. 2, 2002, sales decreased 1 percent and same-store sales decreased 2.6 percent.

Chairman and ceo James Zimmerman said the company's third quarter earnings performance benefited from lower markdowns resulting from lower inventories, as well as reducing expenses to maximize cash flow.

The company opened eight new stores in the third quarter: a Macy's East in the Mall at Millenia Mall in Orlando; three Macy's West stores in Fashion Square, Scottsdale, Ariz., Promenade Mall, Temecula, Calif., and Westminster Mall, Westminster, Calif.; two Bloomingdale's, a department store in Millenia Mall and a home store in Las Vegas; and two Bon Marche stores, in Silver Lake Mall, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and Columbia Center, Kennewick, Wash. (both former Gottschalk's locations).