Mothers Work

Mothers Work Inc. (Philadelphia) announced a 7.6 percent increase in net sales for the month of March 2005. Same-store sales decreased 3 percent.

During the month, the maternity-wear retailer opened five stores, including one multi-brand store, and closed five stores, two of those related to multi-brand store openings. During late March, the company also expanded its proprietary Two Hearts maternity collection to an additional 497 Sears locations, bringing the total number of Sears maternity leased departments operated by the company to 569 locations.

Net sales increased 11.2 percent for the second quarter of fiscal 2005 ended March 31, 2005. Same-store sales decreased 3 percent during the quarter.

“Our sales for the second quarter were in line with our guidance,” said president and coo Rebecca Matthias. “Similarly, our comparable store sales decrease was in line with our guidance. We are pleased that we were able to meet our sales guidance for the quarter despite the cooler-than-normal weather conditions during March throughout much of the United States, which adversely affected our sales of spring merchandise and our total sales for the month of March. The shift in the timing of Easter, to March this year from April last year, undoubtedly shifted holiday-related sales into March, but we believe a more important impact on our overall March sales was the adverse impact from the weather. We believe that sales for the months of March and April combined will be a better indicator of our sales performance than sales results for either month alone. We are encouraged by the fact that we saw a significant pickup in our sales towards the end of March and into the first part of April, as warmer weather in much of the United States seems to have spurred on sales of spring merchandise.

“We are very excited about the in-store launch during February 2005 of our Oh Baby! By Motherhood collection at Kohl’s stores throughout the United States, and the expansion of our proprietary Two Hearts maternity collection in late March to a total of 569 Sears locations throughout the United States.”