California Apparel News

Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. reported double-digit declines for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009, which ended Jan. 30, and a loss for the year.

During a March 11 conference call, PacSun Chief Executive and President Gary H. Schoenfeld forecast his company would regain profitability in the fourth quarter of 2010, just as the teen retailer wraps up rebuilding its juniors department.

Fourth-quarter sales for the company, based in Anaheim, Calif., were $293 million, which was a 17 percent decrease from $352 million during the same period in 2008. It posted a fourth-quarter loss of $36.5 million, or 56 cents per share, compared with a loss of $27 million, or 42 cents a share, for the fourth quarter in 2008.

For fiscal 2009, PacSun reported sales dropped 18 percent to $1.03 billion. It had a loss of $70.3 million, or $1.07 a share, compared with a loss of $63.8 million, or 76 cents a share, in 2008.

PacSun’s same-store sales declined 19 percent during the fourth quarter compared with the same time in the previous year. The retailer maintains a fleet of 894 stores and has not reported a profitable quarter since the third quarter of fiscal 2007.

However, Schoenfeld said his company still had a lot of cash, $93 million, and no debt under its credit facility.

Perhaps one of the biggest changes happened on Feb. 16, when Schoenfeld named Christine Lee as general merchandise manager of juniors merchandising and design. Most recently, Lee was general merchandise manager of women’s apparel and accessories at Urban Outfitters. Schoenfeld hired her to shake up PacSun’s juniors department.

“We did not have a good perspective on who the customer was,” Schoenfeld said during the conference call. He said PacSun’s juniors department was merchandising fashions for a very young juniors crowd and needed to change. These consumers had already devoted much of their fashion dollar to fast-fashion retailers such as Forever 21.—Andrew Asch