Fairlawn's Signet Jewelers Ltd. (NYSE: SIG) reported its full-year and fourth-quarter results on Wednesday, April 3, saying it cut some costs in fiscal 2019 but also didn't bring in as much as it had hoped. The company predicted same-store sales this year will be flat or down.

There also will likely be more store closings and job reductions at the company, which in February announced it was offering voluntary buyouts to some Akron-area employees.

"We made progress on our Path to Brilliance initiatives, achieving double-digit e-commerce growth, delivering $85 million of net cost savings, and continuing to optimize our store footprint," CEO Virginia Drosos said in a release. "However, we did not finish the year as strongly as expected due to a highly competitive promotional environment, continued consumer weakness in the U.K. and lower-than-expected customer demand for legacy merchandise collections that impacted our holiday fourth-quarter results."

For the year, Signet posted a net loss of $657.4 million, compared to earnings of $519.3 million in fiscal 2018. But those numbers are distorted by some items that could be one-offs, such as a pretax charge of $286.7 million in the fourth quarter — charges the company said were related to higher-than-expected costs from state sales taxes with its online James Allen retail arm.

For the fourth quarter, the company reported revenue of $2.15 billion, down 6% from $2.29 billion for the same period in fiscal 2018. It reported a fourth-quarter loss of $107.9 million for the quarter, compared to a gain of $351.3 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018. For the fiscal year, Signet reported revenue of $6.247 billion, virtually flat compared to earnings of $6.253 billion in the previous year.

Same-store sales at the company, which includes Zales, Kay Jewelers, Jared's and Piercing Pagoda stores, were down 2% for the quarter and 0.1% for the year — an improvement from fiscal 2018 when same-store sales fell 5.3% for the year and 5.2% in the fourth quarter.

For fiscal 2020, Signet projects its same-store sales will be flat to down 2.5%, with total sales of $6 billion or just slightly more.

The market had little reaction in the first hour of trading after Signet announced its results, and the company's stock was trading flat at around $27.65 per share.

Most of the initial reactions in the financial press were positive, however, noting that under Drosos Signet has achieved important cost savings and other restructuring goals, while noting that the recent results were a mixed bag.

In announcing the results, Drosos pledged to continue improvements at the company, including improving in-store product selection, increasing the effectiveness of promotions, expanding online sales and offering more services such as jewelry repair and piercings.

Doing those things will require more cost savings, she said.

"Higher levels of investment in these growth initiatives are expected to be funded by aggressively addressing our cost structure and more efficiently managing our inventory," Drosos said in the release. "We expect these initiatives to improve the trajectory of our same-store sales, operating margins and cash-flow generation, and to bolster our balance sheet over the course of our multiyear transformation journey."

In an email to media accompanying its release, Signet said it expects $60 million to $70 million in cost savings this year, coming from procurement savings, workforce reductions, facility consolidation and lower corporate costs.

The company is aiming to close more than 150 stores this year — out of about 3,300 total locations — but has not yet said where the closures will take place.

That would mark a 13% reduction in its total store count over a three-year period, the company stated.

David Bouffard, Signet vice president of corporate affairs, said by email that savings from workforce reductions would come from the previously announced voluntary buyouts, which were offered to some employees through March. He said the company will evaluate the results of the program in April.