Zale Holiday Revenues Up 8%

(IDEX Online News) - Comparable store sales by Zale Corporation increased 8.5 percent for November and December 2010, encompassing the entire holiday selling period. Within this two-month period, November same-store sales increased 11.5 percent and December same store sales increased 7.4 percent.

At constant exchange rates, which excluded the effect of translating Canadian currency denominated sales into U.S. dollars, comparable store sales increased 7.6 percent for the holiday selling period. Total revenues for the two-month period were $533.1 million compared to $493.7 million in 2009, an increase of 8 percent.

U.S. fine jewelry brands, which consist of Zales Jewelers, Zales Outlet and Gordon’s Jewelers, had an increase in same-store sales of 7.5 percent.

Canadian fine jewelry brands Peoples Jewellers and Mappins Jewellers, had an increase in same store sales of 15.6 percent (an increase of 10.2 percent at constant exchange rates).

Kiosk Jewelry same store sales increased 4.2 percent.

“The holiday sales results represent progress as we continue to stabilize the business and return to profitability,” said CEO Theo Killion. “The investments we’ve made in our field teams, the clarity of our marketing message and our back to basics merchandising strategy were validated by our guests during the most critical selling period of the year.”