By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com - Levi Strauss swung to a loss as sales fell in the second quarter after it was forced to shutter stores for 10 weeks as the country went into lockdown to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.
Levi Strauss (NYSE:LEVI) fell 2.5% in after-hours trading.
The company reported a loss of $0.48 a share, larger than the $0.46 loss expected, with sales of $497.54 million, down 62% for the quarter year-on-year, missing estimates of $519.19 million. The company reported a loss of $363.5 million, compared with a profit of $28.2 million a year earlier.
Following the weaker performance, the company said it would cut 700 office jobs, or about 15% of its worldwide corporate workforce.
The company's strategy to ramp-up sales directly to consumers boosted online sales 25% for the quarter, but that did little to offset losses owing to store closures.
The decrease in sales was due to "the temporary closure of company-operated, franchise and wholesale customer retail locations as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic," the company said.
“We started the year with strong momentum, but the global pandemic and economic crises had a significantly negative impact on our second quarter results, as our stores and most wholesale doors were closed around the world for the majority of the quarter," the company said.