Wal-Mart executive labels February a disaster
new
Feb. 15, 2013, 3:40 p.m. EST
By Steven Russolillo
Reuters
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. shares tumbled Friday afternoon amid a report that
February sales for the world’s biggest retailer are off to the worst
monthly start in seven years.
February monthly sales are a “total disaster,” a Wal-Mart
WMT
-2.15%
vice president wrote in an email to executives, Bloomberg reported
Friday afternoon. Disappointing sales figures were driven by payroll-tax
increases that hit shoppers who were already battling tough economic
conditions.
“In case you haven’t seen a sales report these days, February MTD sales
are a total disaster,” Jerry Murray, Wal-Mart’s vice president of
finance and logistics, said in a Feb. 12 email to his fellow executives,
referring to month-to-date sales. “The worst start to a month I have
seen in my [approximately] 7 years with the company.”
Wal-Mart and discounters such as Family Dollar Stores Inc.
FDO
-1.18%
are bracing for a rise in the payroll tax to take a bigger bite from
the paychecks of shoppers already coping with elevated unemployment. The
world’s largest retailer’s struggles come in spite of executives’
expectation of a strong start to February because of the Super Bowl,
milder weather and paycheck cycles, according to the minutes of a Feb. 1
officers meeting that Bloomberg obtained.
Wal-Mart acted Friday afternoon to distance itself from the vice
president’s “disaster” assessment. “As with any organization,” a
Wal-Mart spokesman said in an email, “we often see internal
communications that are not entirely accurate, that lack the proper
context and represent individual opinions.”
The company will report fourth-quarter earnings on Feb. 21.
Shares were down as much as 4%, on heavy trading volume. The stock is down 12% from a record high hit in October. The Tell: Wal-Mart slide cuts 15 points off Dow.
An expanded version of this report appears on the MarketBeat blog at WSJ.com.
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