The company will not open any new units this year beyond those that are already committed: three new Williams-Sonoma stores, while closing four; Pottery Barn will open five units and close seven; Pottery Barn Kids will open two units while closing three, while West Elm will open four stores and Williams-Sonoma Home one unit while closing none.
"To the extent possible, we will recue [the store count] further by working with landlords to close underperforming stores," said Howard Lester, chairman and chief executive officer
Even so, the number of stores he'd like to close is estimated at less than 5% of the overall count, Lester added.
"We have a strong real estate portfolio," Lester said. "We have a large number we'd like to have rent reductions on to get through this."
That doesn't mean that landlords are complying too quickly. Without the promise of opening new stores in other centers, the company has less leverage than it would like to renegotiate terms, he noted.
"We've made some progress," Lester said.
For the quarter, net revenues were $1.01 billion, down 26.7% from the same quarter the previous year. Comparable store sales declined 22.3%.
Williams-Sonoma operates 627 stores under the Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, PBteen, West Elm and Williams-Sonoma Home names.
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