Kohl’s sales plunge 8.8% in Q3, penalised by insufficient private label inventory

American chain Kohl’s (2023 sales 16.6 billion dollars , down by 3.4%, 1,100 stores in 49 states) is going through a difficult period. Quarterly sales to November 2 fell by 8.8% year-on-year, to 3.51 billion dollars . On a like-for-like basis, the fall was 9.3%. Net income for Q3 collapsed by 63%, from 59 million to 22 million dollars. The main cause was a drop in traffic during the back-to-school period, due to insufficient inventories of private-label products. C.E.O. Tom Kingsbury...