Thomas Chubb
Analyst · Brean Murray
Thanks, Terry. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'll start with Lilly Pulitzer. As you may recall us mentioning with its resort chic positioning, Lilly is primarily a first half business. While that remains true, we couldn't be more pleased with the strong results Lilly reported for the fourth quarter. The momentum in this brand continued with sales of $23.1 million compared to $16 million last year, a 44% increase. Because we acquired Lilly Pulitzer on December 21, 2010, only $6 million of the $16 million of net sales were included in our fiscal 2010 consolidated financial statements.
E-commerce sales more than doubled and increases were also reported in the wholesale, signature store and company-owned retail businesses. The productivity and profitability of our retail stores increased significantly in 2011.
One of our most important takeaways was from our Ardmore, Pennsylvania store, where we relocated from a 4,800-square foot space to a 2,200-square foot space, and yet, managed to achieve a significant sales increase. We believe that a 2,200- to 2,500-square foot space is ideal for Lilly in most locations. We recently opened a 2,500-square foot store at SouthPark Mall in Charlotte, and the early results have been spectacular. A lease has been signed for a similar size store in Phipps Plaza, Atlanta, and we hope to have a couple of more ready to go before the end of the year.
As we enter 2012, the priorities for Lilly Pulitzer are continuing to deliver superior product, developing the e-commerce business and growing our database of customers. We believe our digital marketing efforts continue to fuel our brand momentum and drive traffic not only to our e-commerce site, but our stores, wholesale accounts and signature stores.
Near the end of March, we are at the core of Lilly's biggest selling season, and we are pleased to be able to say that the business is performing well across all channels. As always, print, pattern and color are performing very well for Lilly and dresses remain our strength. At the same time, we are pleased to see that we are selling more sportswear. For the full year 2011, the Lilly Pulitzer business grew 30% to $94.5 million and generated adjusted operating margins of 18.7%. We are comfortable projecting another year of significant growth and expect sales to increase in the order of 15% in 2012.
While we will need to make some SG&A investments in this business to support the growth, we believe we will continue to achieve a similar operating margin in 2012. We saw a nice uptick in sales at Ben Sherman in the fourth quarter, increasing from $20.9 million a year ago to $25.9 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011. Operating results also improved over last year, with a small loss of $300,000.
That said, the economic conditions affecting the U.K. and continental Europe continue to be a barrier to accomplish our objectives on our timetable. As a result, our 2012 plan forecast only modest improvements in operating results on sales that are relatively flat to 2011.
Net sales for Lanier Clothes for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011 were essentially flat with last year at $19.8 million. The sales mix continues to shift to branded tailored clothing from private label.
Operating income was slightly lower than last year at $1.5 million due to gross margin pressures and the increased SG&A associated with branded sales. This business continues to produce solid results. And in 2012, we are expecting a low double digit operating margin on roughly flat sales. The corporate and other operating results, as adjusted, were a loss of $3.9 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011 compared to a loss of $3.7 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010.
I'll now hand the call over to Scott Grassmyer.