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At Annual Meeting, William Dillard II Says He’s Encouraged With Recent Trends

2 min read

Despite the negative news surrounding the retail industry, Dillard’s Inc. CEO William Dillard II said Saturday he is encouraged with some recent trends.

“Business has actually not been too bad from the middle of February until now,” said Dillard at the retail chain’s annual shareholder’s meeting at its Little Rock headquarters. “I’m actually encouraged where we are going to be in the future.”

Earlier this month, though, Dillard’s reported first-quarter income of $66.3 million, down 14 percent from the same quarter last year. Total sales also tumbled 6.6 percent to $1.4 billion from the same quarter a year ago. And same-store sales have now posted year-over-year declines in the last seven straight quarters. Its stock price (NYSE: DDS) closed at $49.67 on Friday, down 15.34 percent from a year ago.

During Saturday’s meeting, which took about five minutes, Dillard said mall-based retailers are struggling. He said he read a report that said 4,000 stores in malls have closed across the country so far this year. Dillard’s operates 293 stores in 29 states, most of them in malls.

Still, Dillard said he believed the company’s struggles in the first quarter could be tied to the IRS not sending out tax refund checks fast enough. Most of the returns that went out in January last year were sent out in February this year, he said.

“Whether this is a fact or not, we believe it’s significant,” Dillard said.

Dillard also reminded the audience of about 30 people that most sales remain at brick-and-mortar retailers and those locations aren’t going away.

Still, he said, “it’s been a very difficult year in retail,” and there will be winners and losers in the retail business.

“We plan to be one of the survivors,” said Dillard, whose company was founded by his late father in 1938. “We’ll have better times in the future.”

Shareholders re-elected the same 12 directors to the board, and Dillard’s retained KPMG LLP as its auditor through the fiscal year that ends at the end of January. KPMG was paid $1.425 million in 2016, up 1.06 percent from the previous year.

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