Birks & Mayors announced that both net sales and profits were down for the first half of the year, even as comp sales rose.

For the 26-week period ended Sept. 29, 2012, the company’s net sales decreased by 3.8 percent to $124.9 million from $129.9 million the year before. The period showed a next loss of $5.7 million, compared with a $5.6 million net loss last year. However, the company’s comp sales rose 3 percent.

In a statement, president and CEO Jean-Christophe Bédos said the sales drop was caused largely by the closing of seven retail stores, as well as a weak Canadian dollar and slow business in Florida. However, he noted that the company has experienced strong sales and traffic in Georgia and positive same-store sales growth in Canada.

“We are confident that the introduction of new Birks products and a stronger holiday season will help us experience sales increases in the second half of the year thereby allowing us to achieve an improvement in our bottom line profitability for the year,” he said.

JCK