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DULUTH, Ga.—Battling the impact of COVID-19, National Vision Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: EYE) reported Thursday that its sales increased 1.8 percent to $469.7 million in the first quarter, which ended March 28. The company said comparable-store sales fell 2.9 percent in the period, marking the first decline of same-store sales since growth after 72 consecutive quarters of increases. Net income decreased 44.1 percent to $9.7 million in the quarter, and adjusted EBITDA fell 0.3 percent to $61.0 million.

Operationally, National Vision opened 23 new America’s Best stores (and closed one) during the quarter and ended the period with 1,173 stores under its various retail banners.

National Vision, on March 19, temporarily closed all stores, and on April 7 it temporarily furloughed a significant portion of its employees. On April 23, the retailer announced plans to reopen stores selectively over the coming weeks with a goal for all stores to be open by early June.

As VMAIL reported in late April, National Vision began the gradual reopening with, initially, optical departments inside some Walmart stores and Vista locations and that subsequent openings are following over the coming weeks at the America's Best and Eyeglass World stores.

The company noted that its negative comparable-store sales result in the quarter was due to the temporary store closures beginning March 19. For the January-February period, same-store sales had increased 5.7 percent, but then the same-store number dropped to a negative 41.5 percent in March. The sales growth in the January-February period was driven by increases in customer transactions, the company said.

Chief executive officer Reade Fahs told analysts on a conference Thursday morning that he believes, as has happened following other “disruptive” economic events, there will be pent-up demand that National Vision will be positioned to address. He said he also expects there will not be as many “optical doors out there” in the marketplace, and that value-oriented eyecare companies are in a good position to meet consumers’ changing demands in difficult economic times.

In addition, National Vision said that as of May 5 it had agreed to an amended credit facility that is “intended to prevent the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the temporary closure of our stores, from creating uncertainty relative to our ability to comply with certain financial covenants and allow the company to focus on prudent management of the business over the quarters ahead,” according to its announcement.

Separately, the company announced a plan to offer $350 million aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2025. It expects to use the net proceeds of the offering to repay $75 million of outstanding term loans and $264.5 million of the outstanding revolving loans under its credit facilities.

In terms of first-quarter results, Fahs noted that the closing of stores led to the quarterly results being “a tale of two periods.”

He added, “Pre-COVID-19, in January and February, our business was robust with continued sales momentum building on the strong results in the latter half of 2019. In response to the COVID-19 crisis and our temporary store closure, we shifted to solidifying our financial well-being, focusing on our liquidity position and implementing numerous near-term cost reduction efforts.”

While stores were closed to the public, National Vision said it did staff stores “with skeleton crews” to meet the essential eyecare and eyewear needs of patients and customers, and to facilitate contact lens orders and to manage broken or lost glasses issues. “The past seven weeks have been a vivid reminder of the fact that the optical services and products we offer truly are a medical necessity,” Fahs added.

The company reported taking several steps to offset the impact of COVID-19 on its business. These include:

• Reducing compensation and work hours across the organization. Fahs has elected to reduce his base salary to $1 for the remainder of 2020, and each of the other members of the senior management team have elected to take significant reductions in base salary.

• Postponing a significant amount of planned capital expenditures in fiscal 2020, including a pause in new store openings.

• Reducing near-term marketing, non-essential travel and other discretionary spend.

• Working with a base of vendors and landlords to extend payment terms and modify existing contracts.

• Implementing applicable benefits of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), such as utilizing the employee retention credit and deferring employer payroll taxes.

Fahs also noted on a conference call with securities analysts the company is “comfortable” with its current inventory position and that most of its frame suppliers in China have returned to business.