Citi Trends (CTRN) Announces CEO Change

Citi Trends, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTRN) today announced that its Board of Directors (the “Board”) has appointed Ken Seipel as the Company’s interim Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”), effective June 2, 2024. In connection with the appointment, David Makuen has stepped down as CEO and a member of the Board. To ensure a smooth and successful transition, Mr. Makuen will serve as Senior Advisor to the CEO and the leadership team in the coming weeks.

The Board’s independent members are commencing a search for a new permanent CEO and plan to retain a nationally recognized executive search firm to support the process. The Board will consider external candidates, as well as Ken, in the CEO search. Citi Trends’ Board includes several independent members with prior experience carrying out successful CEO searches.

Peter Sachse, Executive Chairman of the Board, commented:

“On behalf of the Board and the Company’s employees, I thank David for his dedication, hard work and strong leadership during his four years as CEO. David’s contributions include guiding the organization through the challenging COVID-19 pandemic and leading it to a record year in terms of financial performance in fiscal year 2021. The Board’s decision to appoint Ken and initiate a search for a new permanent CEO is intended to position Citi Trends to return the Company to past levels of profitability and beyond. Ken has had success in several turnaround environments. Ken previously served as the CEO of West Marine, and prior to that, led the transformation at Gabe’s, an off-price retailer operating with very similar customer income demographics as Citi Trends. As CEO, Ken balanced profitable growth with strong cost controls to drive record profitability. He has our full confidence.”

Mr. Makuen stated:

“It has been an honor and a privilege to serve as CEO of Citi Trends. This is an incredibly talented organization with some of the smartest and most committed individuals in the retail sector. Together, we led the Company through an unprecedented period of disruption during the pandemic and subsequent inflationary pressures, while maintaining strong customer loyalty and advancing many strategic initiatives designed to drive future brand growth. I look forward to watching Citi Trends continue to delight customers and deliver value for many years to come. I wish the Board and my colleagues the very best.”

Mr. Seipel, interim CEO, concluded:

“I want to thank the Board for its confidence and David for supporting a smooth transition. As interim CEO, I intend to leverage my experiences driving profitable growth, capturing efficiencies and operating across economic cycles to position Citi Trends for enhanced value creation. We will focus on driving sales, sharpening our product assortment decisions, streamlining costs, optimizing our supply chain, improving inventory returns and leveraging benefits from recent technology investments. Although this represents a period of transition, the Board and I plan for the coming months to be very productive and foundational for our long-range growth.”

As a result of today’s announcements, the Board will include eight members and, in line with corporate governance best practices, Mr. Seipel will step down from his Board committee roles.

Additional information related to today’s announcements can be found on Form 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company has provided the following summary of preliminary first quarter 2024 results:

• Total sales of $186.3 million
• Same-store sales increase of 3.1%
• EBITDA loss of $0.8 million

Additional details of the Company’s first quarter 2024 results will be discussed on the Company’s investor call at 9:00 am ET on June 4th, 2024.

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