Dress Barn 4th-quarter revenue jumps 78 percent with addition of Justice stores

Dress Barn 4Q sales rise 78 percent

SUFFERN, N.Y. — Women’s retailer Dress Barn Inc. said Thursday that its fiscal fourth-quarter revenue jumped with the inclusion of retailer Justice, which Dress Barn acquired in November as part of its purchase of Tween Brands Inc.

In the quarter that ended July 24, revenue jumped 78 percent year over year to $710.9 million.

Analysts expected $658 million in revenue.

Dress Barn said that $245.6 million of this total came from sales at Justice stores. Sales at Dress Barn stores rose 11 percent to $282.3 million, while sales at Maurices stores rose 26 percent to $183 million.

Revenue at stores open at least a year increased 7 percent across all the company’s stores. The measure is a widely used indicator of a retailer’s performance because it excludes results from stores that opened or closed during the year.

For the fiscal year, Dress Barn’s revenue totaled $2.37 billion, up 59 percent from $1.49 billion in fiscal 2009.

Revenue at stores open at least a year rose 9 percent in fiscal 2010.

Also Thursday, Dress Barn said it still expects to report a profit of $1.80 to $1.85 when it issues its fiscal-year report in September. Analysts are looking for $1.83 per share.