USA: Federated’s Like-For-Like Sales Up 1.6 Per Cent in July

Federated Department Stores, Inc (NYSE:FD)(PCX:FD) today reported total sales of $1.160bn for the four weeks ended July 29, 2000, an increase of 1.5 per cent from total sales of $1.143bn for the same period last year. On a comp-store basis, Federated's July sales increased 1.6 per cent.For the 13-week second quarter of 2000, Federated's sales totalled $4.064bn, an increase of 1.4 per cent over total sales of $4.006bn for the same period last year. On a comp-store basis, sales in the quarter were up 1.9 per cent.For the first 26 weeks of 2000, Federated's sales totalled $8.096bn, an increase of 6.4 per cent over total sales of $7.606bn for the same period last year. On a comp-store basis, Federated's year-to-date sales are up 2.4 per cent.Federated, with corporate offices in Cincinnati and New York, is one of the US's leading department store retailers, with annual sales of more than $17.7 billion. Federated currently operates more than 400 department stores in 33 states under the names of Bloomingdale's, The Bon Marche, Burdines, Goldsmith's, Lazarus, Macy's, Rich's and Stern's. Federated also operates the Fingerhut, Bloomingdale's By Mail, Macy's By Mail, macys.com and bloomingdales.com direct-to-consumer catalog and electronic commerce subsidiaries.