JC Penney shares sink on $203 million loss

“JC Penney’s stock tumbled 8% Friday in premarket trading, after the department store posted a $203 million loss for the third quarter,” Hibah Yousuf reports for CNN Money.

“The retailer continues to struggle amid a massive overhaul effort. JC Penney’s loss amounted to 93 cents a share for the quarter, more than thirteen times worse than what analysts were expecting,” Yousuf reports. “And sales at stores open at least a year declined more than 26% , the most since CEO Ron Johnson took the helm a year ago. The company’s total sales of $2.9 billion were also well below consensus expectations.”

Yousuf reports, “‘Today, JCP is really a tale of two companies,’ said Johnson in a statement. ‘By far the largest part of our store is the old JC Penney, which continues to struggle and experience significant challenges as evidenced by our third quarter results. However, the new JCP, centered around the shop concept, is gaining traction with customers every day and is surpassing our own expectations in terms of sales productivity which continues to give us confidence in our long term business model.'”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Department stores spoiled their customers with coupons and so-called “sales.” They may beyond hope for redemption by now.

On the bright side, we hear there’s a perfect opening for you at Apple, Ron!

Related articles:
CEO Ron Johnson switches J.C. Penney to two-tier pricing with price-match guarantee – July 26, 2012
Why is Ron Johnson’s retail strategy for J.C. Penney failing? – June 26, 2012
J.C Penney’s stock tumbles after key exec’s abrupt exit – June 19, 2012
J.C. Penney reports loss and plummeting sales in 1Q – May 15, 2012
Why Ron Johnson left Apple to head JC Penney – April 30, 2012
J.C. Penney lures another executive from Apple – April 26, 2012
Steve Jobs’ ex-lieutenant Ron Johnson adds $1.5 billion to J.C. Penney in two days – January 30, 2012
J.C. Penney CEO Ron Johnson: What I learned building the Apple Store – November 21, 2011
New J.C. Penney CEO Johnson hiring former Apple co-workers – November 9, 2011
Why Apple’s retail genius Ron Johnson is paying for the privilege of running J.C. Penney – June 15, 2011
Apple’s retail store chief Johnson off to J.C. Penney; expected to become CEO within months – June 14, 2011

25 Comments

        1. BLN, you are a mystery. Do you not realize every moronic comment like that wipes out anything intelligent you’ve had to say in the past year? Yet another reason to ignore EVERY comment you post. Geez…

  1. Johnston’s comments were revealing. He said the new concept stores were doing better than expected and that it was the old style stores that were dragging sales down.
    That may be spin but his ideas could be working.
    Of course it would be great to have him back at Apple but it would seem JCP is still a work in progress.

    1. Well… Then the question that needs to be asked is “Why the hell are there still so many old-style stores out there?” What’s taking the conversion so long?

      ——RM

      1. They have over 1100 stores. It doesn’t make sense to change all the stores and then find out the approach doesn’t work. I imagine that Johnston tested the new format in several geographies before deciding to expand.
        The guy started in June 2011. Changing an organization that large takes time.
        I’m not saying he has been successful but from the conference call he is claiming the new approach is working.

    2. As an investor, I came very close to shorting JCP several months ago. (Oh how I wish I had of shorted JCP!)

      I have been doing a quite a bit of research on JCP. From what I can tell customers seem to prefer the old stores to the new ones.

      If trends continue Ron Johnson will be out of work by April 2013. I expect the board to fire him if the Christmas season does not significantly improve business.

      1. “I have been doing a quite a bit of research on JCP. From what I can tell customers seem to prefer the old stores to the new ones.”

        Care to share the source of that research?
        I say that because EVERYTHING I have seen, says just the opposite (up to and including the new concept “brand” departments (store in a store) which seem to produce the highest $/Sq’ even when retrofitted into existing, un-renovated, locations)

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