Nashville – Kirkland’s Home, following a tough first quarter, is dialing back high-ticket furniture items and is shifting its focus to seasonal goods for gifting, entertaining and decorating.
“Kirkland’s appeal has always been its ever-changing, seasonally relevant product assortments that provide fashionable, curated looks which our customers rely on to update their homes more affordably,” said Ann Joyce, who was appointed interim CEO in early April.
In the second half, Kirkland’s will showcase “value décor” priced under $20 – which will comprise 40% of the merchandise mix. It will also become more aggressive with its promotions, creating a marketing calendar around sharply priced seasonal introductions.
“We are on the early stages of our journey,” Joyce said during a recent quarterly call with investors. “At our core we are a value, specialty home décor retailer. And this means we use promotions and deals as strategic drivers to engage and excite our customers.”
Home textiles, which accounted for 11% of total sales in 2022, was not mentioned during the review of the Q1 category performance. Top performers included seasonal, floral and outdoor. Furniture and wall décor generated weak sales.
Comp sales for the quarter ended April 29 decreased 4.4%, including a 6.6% decline in e-commerce sales. The decrease was primarily driven by a decline in traffic, partially offset by an increase in average ticket.
As of April 29, 2023, the company had a cash balance of $7.1 million, with $33.0 million of outstanding debt under its $90 million senior secured revolving credit facility.
Kirkland’s is holding off on guidance for the current fiscal year, saying only that it expects Q2 to be a transitional quarter.
