Ross Stores profits climb 17.6% in 4Q. (Business Today).

Home Textiles Today, March, 2003

NEWARK, CA -- Building sales at a double-digit pace as it opens new doors, Ross Stores Inc. pushed fourth-quarter profits up by 17.6 percent, to $58.7 million from $50.0 million last year. Getting a strong lift from its burgeoning home business, sales moved up by 13.7 percent, to $964.6 million from $848.4 million a year ago.

Same-store sales increased by 3.0 percent. Ross, an off-price apparel retailer, has been plumping up its increasingly important home business, and in 2002 was the nation's 25th largest retailer of home textiles, generating about $152.0 million in home fashions sales. During the all-important Christmas quarter, said Michael Balmuth, vice chairman and ceo, "The strongest merchandise departments were Home and Shoes, with...

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