Framingham, Mass. – TJX Cos. will beef up home in the Maxmarxx division to address lagging traffic. In reporting second quarter results, company execs said since reopening stores after the COVID-19 shutdown, sales have been especially strong sales at the HomeGoods and Homesense chains. Other TJX nameplates are also seeing strong sales in their home departments, across geographies.
TJX President and CEO Ernie Herrman told analysts during this morning’s quarterly call the company expects in-store traffic to remain challenged for several months.
“Marmaxx is putting funding into the hot categories and defunding and taking down inventory in the softer areas,” he said, predicting the strategy will continue over the next three to six months. “Marmaxx, as you know, can do a pretty significant home business.”
A few other categories are seeing traction and will dial up assortments, he added, declining to identify them.
Customers are viewing home as an essential purchase, according to Scott Goldenberg, executive vice president and chief financial officer, and traffic for home-only formats and in home departments is not far off pre-COVID-19 levels. “We believe we are going to gain back market share and more.”
For the quarter ended Aug. 1, net company sales fell 32% to $6.7 billion. Comp for open stores fell 3%. Net loss was $213 million, or 18 cents per share. All comp sales exclude e-commerce sales.
- Marmaxx sales declined 31% to $4 billion, with comp down 6%.
- HomeGoods sales were down 13% to $1 billion, but comp rose 20%.
- TJX Canada sales dropped 39% to $592 million, with comp down 18%.
- TJX International (Europe and Australia) sales declined 31% to $880 million, with comp slipping 1%.
Like several of its competitors, the company expects a slower Back-to-School season and an earlier start to the holiday season. TJX is planning overall open-only comp store sales to decrease in the range of 10% to 20% for the third quarter.
“For the quarter, we were very pleased that both our top and bottom lines well exceeded our internal plans, despite our stores only being open for a little more than two thirds of the second quarter, and that our merchandise margin was excellent,” said Herrman.
