Business
The Children’s Place Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2022 Results and Provides 2023 Outlook
Reports Fourth Quarter 2022 Loss Lower than Prior GuidanceExpects Double-Digit Operating Margins in Back Half of 2023Expects a Return to Profitability for
About this update from Children's Place, Inc. (the)
[{"type":"text","content":"Reports Fourth Quarter 2022 Loss Lower than Prior GuidanceExpects Double-Digit Operating Margins in Back Half of 2023Expects a Return to Profitability for Full Year 2023 SECAUCUS, N.J., March 16, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Children’s Place, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCE), the largest pure-play children’s specialty apparel retailer in North America, today announced financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended January 28, 2023. Jane Elfers, President and Chief Executive Officer commented, “As we previously announced, our 2022 operating results were negatively impacted by unprecedented input costs – the spike in cotton prices, airfreight, and container costs. While we still need to work through this higher cost inventory during the front half of 2023, input cost reductions in the back half of 2023, combined with our strong focus on expense and inventory management and our strategic growth initiatives, are planned to drive double-digit operating margins in the back half of 2023.” Ms. Elfers continued, “Over the last several years, we have executed a strategic transformation focused on four key pillars – superior product, digital transformation, wholesale and international expansion, and fleet optimization. This initiative reflected the highly competitive environment, rapidly changing consumer shopping preferences, and falling birthrates. To successfully compete, we needed to capture market share while positioning ourselves to meet the needs of our increasingly digitally-savvy, core millennial customers, and the Gen Z customers right behind them. Some of the strategic decisions we made during our transformation led to short-term volatility in our results, but all of them have positioned us for sustained long-term growth on both the top and bottom lines.” Ms. Elfers continued, “With our strategic transformation to a digital first retailer now complete, we thought it would be helpful to review how our strategy has positioned the Company for future sustained growth. Prior to the onset of the pandemic, we accelerated our digital transformation with a $50 million investment to upgrade our platform, systems, and omni-channel capabilities. This investment enabled us to keep pace with our core millennial customer, a younger consumer who was rapidly evolving into a digital-first consumer. We know our customer well, and we recognized ...