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Signet Jewelers plans to close more than 150 stores in fiscal 2020 as part of its turnaround plan, the retailer announced Wednesday.
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The parent company of Kay, Zales and Jared jewelers is recovering from a weak holiday season that forced it to slash its profit outlook. It has been under pressure as foot traffic at malls has fallen and the industry has increasingly relied on promotions to get sales.
“We did not finish the year as strongly as expected due to a highly competitive promotional environment, continued consumer weakness in the UK, and lower than expected customer demand for legacy merchandise collections that impacted our holiday fourth quarter results,” CEO Virginia C. Drosos said in a statement.
For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019, ended Feb. 2, same-store sales fell by 2%. For the year, they dropped 0.1%. Signet said Wednesday that it expects in fiscal 2020 that same-store sales will fall between a range of a 2.5% decline and flat. It expects total sales of $6 billion.
Year to date, Signet’s shares are down 12.5%.
As part of its planned turnaround, Signet has said it is focusing more on products, marketing and online business.