Yahoo Finance Bon-Ton Stores CEO to leave company next year
Department store operator Bon-Ton Stores says CEO will leave company next year; shares fall
YORK, Pa. (AP) -- Bon-Ton Stores announced CEO Brendan Hoffman will step down next year after the department store reported falling profit and sales for the fourth quarter.
Hoffman, the one-time CEO at Lord & Taylor, will also resign from the board as well. He is leaving for personal reasons, the company said Tuesday.
Shares slumped 8 percent in early trading.
Like other retailers, Bon-Ton said nasty winter weather kept shoppers away from stores around the crucial holiday season.
Net income for the quarter ending Feb. 1 fell to $61.3 million, or $3.04 per share. That's well short of the $2.83 that Wall Street was looking for, and a decline from last year when the company posted net income of $74.4 million, or $3.71 per share.
Revenue fell 10 percent to $914.9 million from $1.02 billion. That also fell short of analyst projections. A poll by FactSet shows the consensus revenue estimate was for more than $979 million.
Sales at stores open at least a year fell 7.3 percent. That number is considered a key indicator of a retailer's financial health because it strips away the volatility of recently opened or closed stores.
The company projected earnings of between 40 and 70 cents per share in fiscal 2014. That's below the 81 cents per share analysts expected.
Bon-Ton expects sales at stores open at least a year to rise between 1 percent to 3 percent in 2014.
The last day for Hoffman, 45, as CEO and director will be Feb. 7.
The company, which has headquarters in York, Pa., and Milwaukee, operates 270 department stores under the Bon-Ton, Bergner's, Boston Store, Carson's, Elder-Beerman, Herberger's and Younkers names.
Shares of Bon-Ton Stores Inc. fell 87 cents to $10 at the open of trading. Its shares are down 9 percent over the past year.
