JC Penney sees profits slump by half

US department store chain JC Penney suffered a 51% drop in profits in the fourth quarter of its year, and says it expects its troubles to continue.

In the three months to January 31 it earned $211m compared with $430m in the same period a year earlier.

Turnover was down 9.8% to $5.76bn from $6.39bn, while sales at stores open for at least a year fell 10.8%.

The company is predicting that in the current quarter, same-store sales will be down by between 12 and 15%.

JC Penney is trying to pick up customers from failed rivals such as Linens N’ Things by stocking items that were popular there.

“We’ve seen success in recruiting those customers to our format when we were [competing] head-to-head with those stores,” said CEO Myron Ullman III.