USA: Talbots Announces August Sales

The Talbots, Inc (NYSE: TLB - news) today announced sales for fiscal August, the four weeks ended August 26, 2000, increased 24 per cent to $88.2m from $71.3m for the four weeks ended August 28, 1999. Comparable store sales increased 18.5 per cent for the month. Year- to-date sales for the thirty weeks ended August 26, 2000 increased 20 per cent to $802.6m from $669.3m reported for the thirty weeks ended August 28, 1999. Comparable store sales increased 16.2 per cent for the year-to-date period. Arnold B. Zetcher, chairman, president and CEO said: 'Healthy demand for our early fall merchandise drove our better than expected comparable store sales performance of 18.5 per cent, and we remain very pleased with the continuation of our strong regular-price selling trends. As we move into September, we will be presenting our complete fall assortment, supported by a comprehensive marketing campaign, including national print and television advertising as well as the distribution of our major fall catalog. Although August is a transitional month, we are off to a very good start for the fall. We believe that the early indications of our customer's positive response to our classic assortments position us well for a successful second half.'Talbots is a leading national specialty retailer and cataloger of women's classic apparel, shoes and accessories. The company operates 688 stores - 408 Talbots Misses stores, including 19 Talbots Misses stores in Canada and six Talbots Misses stores in the United Kingdom; 162 Talbots Petites stores, including one Talbots Petites store in Canada; 35 Talbots Accessories & Shoes stores; 55 Talbots Kids stores; eight Talbots Woman stores; and 20 Talbots Outlet stores. Its catalog operation currently expects to circulate approximately 57 million catalogs worldwide in fiscal 2000. Talbots online shopping site is located at