Body Central Corp.’s stock took a tumble three weeks ago after the Jacksonville-based fashion retailer issued a disappointing second-quarter sales forecast.
CEO Allen Weinstein assured shareholders Thursday that the company already is working to grow sales again.
“We have the right plan in place to overcome the short-term sales trend,” Weinstein said at Body Central’s annual meeting at The River Club in Downtown Jacksonville.
The plan includes improving the company’s test and reorder strategy, in which it places new fashions in a few test stores to see if they sell. If they do, the company rolls out the new fashions into all of its stores.
Weinstein said the company also is working on better inventory control and installing a new allocation system that matches up inventory to the needs of its stores.
Body Central operates 246 stores in 23 states and also sells fashion for young women through a catalog and Internet site.
The company had a strong year in 2011, its first as a public company, with total sales growing by 21.8 percent and comparable-store sales rising by 11.3 percent. Net income doubled to $19.7 million.
Body Central three weeks ago reported that first-quarter comparable-store sales fell by 1.4 percent, and it projected second-quarter comp sales to decline by 5 percent to 7 percent.
Company officials remain confident that it’s only a short-term problem.
“We still expect our profits to increase for the full year 2012,” Chief Financial Officer Thomas Stoltz said.
However, the stock market reacted harshly to the second-quarter forecast. Body Central’s stock dropped from $28.92 to $14.88 and has remained close to that level for the past three weeks.
Weinstein said after the meeting that he was surprised by the size of the stock drop, but added “there was nothing I could do about it.”
Thursday’s meeting also marked the retirement of Body Central founder Jerrold Rosenbaum, who is leaving the board of directors after 40 years with the company. Rosenbaum and his late wife Ronnie started the company in 1972 and opened its first store the following year in the Roosevelt Mall on the Westside.
“He put his whole life into making this a great company,” Body Central Chairman Martin Doolan said. “He had a vision 40 years ago and we thank him for that.”
“We were able to keep our niche and make it work,” Rosenbaum said after the meeting.
Rosenbaum said he is most happy that Body Central has a lot of longtime employees who have profited along with the top officers as the company grew.
“It’s been a wonderful voyage,” he said.
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