Wilsons leather sales fall in December
Comparable store sales for Wilsons The Leather Experts Inc. fell 11.9% in the five weeks to January 5, 2002. The US leather goods company blamed a number of negative factors on the results, announced in a press release on Wednesday (January 9). The lower same-store sales were partially offset by the effect of the purchase of Bentley’s last year, meaning that sales overall were down 3.1% to $223.1 million compared to $230.2 million last year.
Chairman and chief executive officer Joel Waller said: "Each of the negative factors we saw this holiday season, the reductions in consumer travel activity stemming from the September 11th tragedy, the economic downturn, or the record warm temperatures across the country taken alone would have hurt our performance. The combination of them, at our peak selling season, made this the most difficult year in our Company's history."
