{"id":740598,"date":"2023-03-16T07:06:06","date_gmt":"2023-03-16T11:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marketnewsdesk.com\/index.php\/the-childrens-place-reports-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2022-results-and-provides-2023-outlook\/"},"modified":"2023-03-16T07:06:06","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T11:06:06","slug":"the-childrens-place-reports-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2022-results-and-provides-2023-outlook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marketnewsdesk.com\/index.php\/the-childrens-place-reports-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2022-results-and-provides-2023-outlook\/","title":{"rendered":"The Children\u2019s Place Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2022 Results and Provides 2023 Outlook"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Reports Fourth Quarter 2022 Loss Lower than Prior Guidance
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\n Expects Double-Digit Operating Margins in Back Half of 2023
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\n Expects a Return to Profitability for Full Year 2023<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n

SECAUCUS, N.J., March 16, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Children\u2019s Place, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCE),<\/strong>\u00a0the largest pure-play children\u2019s specialty apparel retailer in North America, today announced financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended January 28, 2023.<\/p>\n

Jane Elfers, President and Chief Executive Officer commented, \u201cAs we previously announced, our 2022 operating results were negatively impacted by unprecedented input costs \u2013 the spike in cotton prices, airfreight, and container costs. While we still need to work through this higher cost inventory during the front half of 2023, input cost reductions in the back half of 2023, combined with our strong focus on expense and inventory management and our strategic growth initiatives, are planned to drive double-digit operating margins in the back half of 2023.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Elfers continued, \u201cOver the last several years, we have executed a strategic transformation focused on four key pillars \u2013 superior product, digital transformation, wholesale and international expansion, and fleet optimization. This initiative reflected the highly competitive environment, rapidly changing consumer shopping preferences, and falling birthrates. To successfully compete, we needed to capture market share while positioning ourselves to meet the needs of our increasingly digitally-savvy, core millennial customers, and the Gen Z customers right behind them. Some of the strategic decisions we made during our transformation led to short-term volatility in our results, but all of them have positioned us for sustained long-term growth on both the top and bottom lines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Elfers continued, \u201cWith our strategic transformation to a digital first retailer now complete, we thought it would be helpful to review how our strategy has positioned the Company for future sustained growth. Prior to the onset of the pandemic, we accelerated our digital transformation with a $50 million investment to upgrade our platform, systems, and omni-channel capabilities. This investment enabled us to keep pace with our core millennial customer, a\u00a0younger consumer who was rapidly evolving into a digital-first consumer. We know our customer well, and we recognized long before the pandemic \u00a0that our millennial Mom\u2019s shopping preferences were rapidly shifting to digital. Now, as we are about to enter our fourth year since the pandemic hit, her preference for on-line shopping has continued to increase.\u00a0Without that $50 million investment, we would not have been able to service our customers when all of our stores were shut down for several months at the start of the pandemic and we would not have the significant competitive advantage of our industry-leading digital penetration that we have today.\u00a0To take full advantage of our customer\u2019s strong preference for on-line shopping, we focused on rapidly shifting our primary acquisition channel to digital from stores \u2013 and we have achieved our desired results in a remarkably short period of time, with digital now our primary acquisition channel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Elfers continued, \u201cWe then made the strategic decision to aggressively promote our product in order to capture market share in what was then\u00a0a\u00a0significantly\u00a0over-stored kids retail space. At that time, we said we were willing to take short-term pain in order to achieve long-term gain. One year later, we saw the benefits from this strategy, as we captured pricing power for our core TCP brand when there were approximately 2,000 fewer mall-based kids stores. Concurrently, our design team began rejuvenating the iconic Gymboree brand, an acquisition that has strategically positioned us to be a more powerful competitor in what has been, for us, an\u00a0under-penetrated toddler demographic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elfers added, \u201cIn 2020, following the onset of the pandemic, we recognized the opportunity to further accelerate our transformation:<\/p>\n