Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc. posted financial results for its third quarter ended June 30, 2017. Sales fell 1.3% to $594.9 million. Inventory at quarter end was $947.6 million—up 4.2% from the prior year. The increase was due primarily to new store growth and the addition of new brands, partially offset by the impact of a stronger US dollar.


“We are pleased to report solid third quarter results, with improved revenue performance, excellent gross margin expansion and meaningful growth in adjusted earnings per share,” said Chris Brickman, Sally Beauty Holding’s president and chief executive officer. “Our results reflect a balanced approach to managing our business in a challenging retail environment, combining appropriate long-term strategic investments with an unrelenting focus on operating discipline and organizational efficiencies.


“Our effort to position the company for better financial performance extends to our capital structure. As we announced shortly after quarter end, we refinanced $850 million of our long-term debt in early July by redeeming higher cost senior notes with funds generated from a new, lower cost institutional term loan, a move that should generate a significant reduction in annual cash interest expense,” said Brickman.


According to Brickman, the company intends “to execute on our strategic priorities and strive for additional gross margin improvement and cost savings in order to achieve our financial goals for the year and deliver even better results in fiscal 2018.”