Carter's reports positive fourth quarter and fiscal 2014 results

By

Obi Anyanwu

Published
Feb 27, 2015

Carter's Inc., which owns the trademarks OshKosh, OshKosh B'gosh, and Genuine Kids, on Thursday announced its fourth quarter and fiscal 2014 results, revealing very positive numbers.
 
Carter’s fourth quarter saw consolidated net sales increase $99.6 million, or 12.9% to $869.2 million, while net income increased $25.8 million, or 60.5%, to $68.6 million. Retail sales increased 15.7% to $341.7 million and wholesale sales grew $28.5 million, or 10.5%, to $300.4 million, reflecting growth across all Carter’s brands

For the entire 2014 financial year, consolidated net sales increased $255.2 million, or 9.7%, to $2.9 billion. This increase reflects growth in both Carter’s segments, the OshKosh retail segment, and the Company's international segment.

Net income increased $34.3 million, or 21.4%, to $194.7 million, while sales in the retail segment increased $133.0 million, or 13.9%, to $1.1 billion, and wholesales $46.5 million, or 4.5%, to $1.1 billion, reflecting growth in a majority of the Company’s top accounts.

The group's OshKosh brand saw sales increase $17.0 million, or 17.8%, to $112.6 million, while for the year overall sales increased $45.8 million, or 15.8%, to $335.1, with direct-to-consumer comparable sales increasing 7.3%.

As of the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014, the Company operated 200 OshKosh retail stores (compared to 531 Carter’s stores) in the United States.

In the wholesale segment, sales increased $0.4 million, or 1.8%, to $20.9 million in the fourth quarter but decreased $1.4 million, or 1.8%, to $73.2 million over the year.

Michael D. Casey, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, "We saw good demand for our brands in the final months of the year. We believe our focus on providing the best value and experience in young children’s apparel enabled us to achieve our 26th consecutive year of sales growth and a record level of profitability in 2014. We’re encouraged by consumers’ response to our new Spring product offerings, and we’re expecting good growth in sales and earnings in 2015."
 
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