Tilly's forecast 40.7 percent drop in Q1 sales

Total net sales for the first quarter at Tilly’s were approximately 77.3 million dollars, a decrease of 40.7 percent, while net sales from physical stores were approximately 47 million dollars, a decrease of 57.5 percent compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2019. The company said, net sales from e-commerce for the quarter were approximately 30.4 million dollars, an increase of 54.4 percent. The company currently expects to reopen 26 of its stores to the public on or about May 15, 2020, including certain stores in Arizona, Florida, Texas and Utah.

“We anticipate customer traffic and sales activity will remain well below normal levels following the reopening of stores, which we expect will negatively impact our near-term profitability and cash flows from our reopened stores,” said Ed Thomas, President and Chief Executive Officer of Tilly’s in a statement, adding, “We do not yet know when most of our stores will be able to reopen to the public, particularly with respect to the stores in our home state of California, which represent approximately 40 percent of our current total stores and approximately 50 percent of our total store sales in fiscal 2019.”

The company added that approximately 90 percent of its employee workforce remains on furlough at this time and previously announced management pay cuts remain in place. The combination of furloughs and management pay cuts has reduced the company’s cash payroll costs by approximately 1.4 million dollars per week since the beginning of April 2020. In order to protect its liquidity, the company has also elected to withhold payment of its store rents for the months of April and May 2020.