USA: Polo Ralph Lauren First Quarter Revenue Up By 12 Per Cent

Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation (NYSE: RL) reported today that its first quarter fiscal 2001 net income grew to $24m, representing earnings of $0.25 cents per diluted share, a gain of 4 per cent over diluted earnings per share of $0.24 for the first quarter of fiscal year 2000. The results reflect the acquisition of Polo's European operation, continued improvement in Polo's full line retail stores performance and increased demand for women's and children's licensed products. "Our core businesses are continuing to experience solid gains. One particular area of note is our European operations that we acquired earlier this year. This business is running ahead of our plans, which demonstrates our international brand strength and the future opportunities it provides us," said Ralph Lauren, chairman and CEO. Lance Isham, vice chairman of Polo Ralph Lauren, commented: "Both our men's and women's Collection brands and our Polo Ralph Lauren men's brands continue to experience good retail results and our women's and children's licensed businesses exhibited strong growth during the quarter. Growth in women's and children's was driven primarily by their ongoing success with department store customers."Roger Farah, president and COO, said, "We've enjoyed good customer response at our Polo Ralph Lauren stores as we transitioned to providing a higher concentration of luxury apparel."