Pottery Barn Kids to Add Value Line

Williams-Sonoma Inc. (San Francisco) is introducing a collection of lower-priced products to the lineup at its Pottery Barn Kids stores this fall. Home furnishings retailer Pottery Barn began a value initiative in 2008 that’s being credited with helping sales.

The parent company saw retail net revenues drop 17.6 percent in the first-quarter 2009, driven by a 21 percent decline in same-store sales. All brands had declining net revenues during the quarter, led by Pottery Barn, Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn Kids.

“While the home furnishings sector continued to be under significant pressure in the first quarter, we focused on the aspects of the business we could control and delivered substantially better-than-expected earnings results,” says Howard Lester, chairman and ceo. “We were able to enhance profitability by reducing our advertising expense as a percentage of revenues and optimizing our promotional activity. We also successfully lowered our merchandise inventories, reduced our capital spending and once again improved our year-over-year cash position.”