Bon-Ton posts larger loss for quarter

Sales decline 9.3% from last year

Bon-Ton Stores Inc.’s first-quarter loss widened as the retailer saw sales drop 9.3% from the same period a year earlier.

Bon-Ton, the parent company of Boston Store, Younkers and other department stores, said Thursday it posted a net loss of $57.3 million, or $2.86 per share, in the first quarter. That compared with a loss of $37.8 million, or $1.91 per share, in the first quarter of 2016.

The company’s first-quarter sales fell to $536.1 million from $591 million overall. Comparable-store sales — sales at stores open at least a year — fell 8.8%.

“Our first-quarter results did not meet our expectations due primarily to weak mall traffic trends, unfavorable weather and marketing challenges associated with the Easter calendar shift,” Kathryn Bufano, president and chief executive, said in a statement.

Despite the down results and the expectation of a continuing tough retail environment, on a conference call with Wall Street analysts, Bufano was upbeat about efforts to restore Bon-Ton to profitability. Bon-Ton, which has dual headquarters in Milwaukee and York, Pa., has lost money for six consecutive years.

Bufano said Bon-Ton will be adding FAO Schwarz sections with toys and gifts in time for holiday shopping and will begin selling Champion active wear in the fall.

“Our furniture business has been an area that has performed well for us, and we plan to add 13 new furniture locations and expand one existing location by August of this year,” she said. “Our home décor offering will be further expanded online and in stores to feature more lifestyle merchandise as we continue to grow this business.”

Bufano said Bon-Ton’s new “Close to Home” departments featuring locally made or themed products have been popular.

“We will continue to grow Close to Home with expansion into 100 doors by the fall season and expect to reach 175 shops in total by year end,” Bufano said.

Bon-Ton operates 261 stores, which includes nine furniture galleries and four clearance centers, in 25 states in the Northeast, Midwest and upper Great Plains.

Bufano said the company is trying to capitalize on the exits of other challenged retailers in locations where it also has stores.

Bon-Ton will push for more sales among shoppers at its stores with an initiative it’s calling “Toes on the Tile,” Bufano said.

The effort includes additional weekend staffing, retention of employees and more training “to ensure that our store associates are knowledgeable,” Bufano said.

She said the company is working to simplify its coupon strategy to make sure customers “receive the best deal every time they shop in the most efficient way possible,” and to manage the number of exclusions that apply to coupons.

Online sales now make up about 10% of sales, and the company hopes to increase that eventually to 20%, she said.

Earlier this month, Bon-Ton announced that Bufano, brought in less than three years ago to lead the company, will step down in August and be succeeded by BonTon’s chief operating officer, William Tracy.

Tracy will become will become Bon-Ton’s fourth CEO since 2012.