Destination Maternity Corporation Reports Sales for September 2009 and Expects Fourth Quarter Earnings to Exceed Prior Earnings Guidance

Destination Maternity Corporation Reports Sales for September 2009 and Expects
Fourth Quarter Earnings to Exceed Prior Earnings Guidance
Company Expects Fourth Quarter Earnings to Exceed Top End of Prior Earnings
Guidance Range

PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Destination Maternity
Corporation (Nasdaq: DEST), the world's leading maternity apparel retailer,
today reported sales for the month of September 2009 and announced that it
expects its fourth quarter earnings to exceed the top end of its prior
earnings guidance range. Net sales for the month of September 2009 decreased
5.1% to $41.5 million from $43.7 million reported for the month of September
2008. Comparable store sales for the month of September 2009 decreased 7.0%
on a reported basis, and decreased approximately 8.0% after adjusting for the
"days adjustment calendar timing shift." For September 2008, the Company's
comparable store sales decreased 1.3% on a reported basis, and increased
approximately 2.7% after adjusting for the calendar shift. The decrease in
total reported sales for September 2009 compared to September 2008 resulted
primarily from the decrease in comparable store sales, partially offset by
increased sales from the Company's licensed and leased department
relationships.

Net sales for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 decreased 5.1% to $123.8
million from $130.5 million reported for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008.
Comparable store sales for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 decreased 8.7%
versus a comparable store sales increase of 2.8% for the fourth quarter of
fiscal 2008. The decrease in total reported sales for the fourth quarter of
fiscal 2009 compared to fiscal 2008 resulted primarily from the decrease in
comparable store sales, partially offset by increased sales from the Company's
licensed and leased department relationships.

Net sales decreased 5.9% to $531.3 million for the fiscal year ended September
30, 2009, from $564.6 million for the same period of the preceding year.
Comparable store sales for fiscal 2009 decreased 4.3% versus a comparable
store sales increase of 0.2% for fiscal 2008. The decrease in total reported
sales for fiscal 2009 compared to fiscal 2008 resulted primarily from the
decrease in comparable store sales and the decrease in Sears® leased
department sales resulting from the closure of all of the Company's remaining
leased departments within Sears stores during the month of June 2008. On June
10, 2009, the Company announced that in October 2009 it will re-launch its Two
Hearts® Maternity leased departments at over 500 Sears locations and will
introduce Two Hearts Maternity leased departments at 100 Kmart® locations.

Ed Krell, Chief Executive Officer of Destination Maternity, noted, "We are
very pleased to announce that we expect our earnings for the fourth quarter to
exceed the top end of our prior earnings guidance range and to be
significantly higher than last year, despite our comparable store sales
decline. Our improved earnings performance is driven by strong merchandise
gross margin performance and continued tight management of expenses. We
attribute our comparable store sales decrease to: (i) the continued extremely
difficult overall retail environment; (ii) our relatively strong comparable
store sales performance for September and the fourth quarter of last year; and
(iii) our much lower level of remaining Spring and Summer inventory versus a
year ago due to our tight inventory controls. In the fourth quarter of fiscal
2008, our strong sales were largely driven by sales of marked down Spring and
Summer merchandise, which helped sales but resulted in lower margins than
planned. In contrast, with our much cleaner Spring and Summer inventory
position versus a year ago, we had much lower clearance sales volume this
year, which contributed to our sales decline, but enabled us to achieve
significantly higher merchandise gross margin than last year, as we were able
to be much less price promotional than a year ago. Our sales performance for
the fourth quarter was near expectations, with our comparable store sales
decrease of 8.7% for the quarter slightly below the bottom end of our guidance
range of down 5.5% to 8.5% for the quarter, and our total sales of $123.8
million falling within our sales guidance range of $122.6 to $126.5 million
provided in our July 29, 2009 press release. Although we are not at all
satisfied with our comparable store sales performance for the quarter, we
believe it reflects the extremely difficult overall retail environment and is
consistent with the significant comparable store sales declines experienced by
many retailers in recent months.

"As we have noted previously, we have taken aggressive actions to manage our
business in this tough environment, and with our tight management of
expenditures and inventory, we were able to continue to reduce expenses and
were able to control markdown levels while operating the business with
significantly lower inventory levels versus last year, resulting in better
than planned gross margin performance and lower than planned expenses. Thus,
we expect our fourth quarter diluted earnings per share to be better than the
$(0.08) loss per share top end of our prior guidance range of a loss per share
of between $(0.08) and $(0.22) that we provided in our July 29, 2009 press
release, and to be significantly better than our last year's fourth quarter
loss of $(0.80) per share, which included $(0.36) per share for restructuring
and other charges in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008."

During September 2009, the Company did not open any new stores and closed two
stores. As of the end of September 2009, the Company operates 724 stores, 360
leased department locations and 1,084 total retail locations, compared to 754
stores, 278 leased department locations and 1,032 total retail locations
operated at the end of September 2008. The increase in leased department
locations at the end of September 2009 versus the end of September 2008
predominantly reflects the opening of an additional 69 Babies"R"Us®( )leased
department locations in January 2009 and February 2009. For the quarter ended
September 30, 2009, the Company opened two stores, including one multi-brand
store opening, and closed eight stores. For the fiscal year ended September
30, 2009, the Company opened 13 stores, including five multi-brand store
openings, and closed 43 stores, including eight store closings related to
multi-brand store openings.

Days Adjustment Calendar Shift

Destination Maternity reports sales on a calendar month basis, rather than on
a "4-5-4 retail fiscal calendar" where each fiscal week and fiscal month
starts on a Sunday and ends on a Saturday. Thus, for each calendar month,
there is a "days adjustment calendar shift" which may help or hurt reported
calendar month sales and comparable store sales due to different days of the
week typically contributing more sales than other days of the week. For
September 2009, there was one more Wednesday and one less Monday compared to
September 2008 and, more importantly, Labor Day was on September 7 in 2009
compared to September 1 in 2008. The Company estimates this calendar shift
favorably impacted its reported comparable store sales for September 2009 by
approximately 1 percentage point. The comparable store sales decrease of 1.3%
for September 2008 was unfavorably impacted by approximately 4 percentage
points due to having four Saturdays and four Sundays in September 2008
compared to five Saturdays and five Sundays in September 2007 and due to the
earlier timing of Labor Day in 2008 (September 1) compared to 2007 (September
3).

The Company will report results for the fourth quarter and hold an investor
conference call on November 18, 2009, at which time it will provide additional
information related to results for the fourth quarter and future financial
guidance.

Destination Maternity Corporation is the world's largest designer and retailer
of maternity apparel, using its quick response replenishment system to "give
the customer what she wants, when she wants it." In the United States and
Canada, Destination Maternity operates, as of September 30, 2009, 1,084 retail
locations, including 724 stores, predominantly under the tradenames Motherhood
Maternity®, A Pea in the Pod®, and Destination Maternity®, and sells on the
web through its DestinationMaternity.com and brand-specific websites.
Destination Maternity also distributes its Oh Baby by Motherhood(TM)
collection through a licensed arrangement at Kohl's® stores throughout the
United States and on Kohls.com, and, beginning in October 2009, will also
offer its Two Hearts Maternity® by Destination Maternity collection in Sears®
stores and certain Kmart® stores through a leased department relationship with
Sears. In addition, Destination Maternity is expanding internationally and
has entered into exclusive store franchise and product supply relationships in
India and the Middle East.

The Company cautions that any forward-looking statements (as such term is
defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) contained in
this press release or made from time to time by management of the Company,
including those regarding net sales, comparable store sales, other results of
operations, liquidity and financial condition, and various business
initiatives, involve risks and uncertainties, and are subject to change based
on various important factors. The following factors, among others, in some
cases have affected and in the future could affect the Company's financial
performance and actual results and could cause actual results to differ
materially from those expressed or implied in any such forward-looking
statements: the impact of the current global economic slowdown on the retail
industry in general and on apparel purchases in particular, our ability to
successfully manage our various business initiatives, our ability to
successfully implement our merchandise brand and retail nameplate
restructuring, the success of our international expansion, our ability to
successfully manage and retain our leased department and licensed
relationships and marketing partnerships, future sales trends in our existing
store base, unusual weather patterns, changes in consumer preferences and
spending patterns,demographics and other macroeconomic factors that may impact
the level of spending for maternity apparel, overall economic conditions and
other factors affecting consumer confidence, expense savings initiatives, the
impact of competition and fluctuations in the price, availability and quality
of raw materials and contracted products, availability of suitable store
locations, continued availability of capital and financing, goodwill
impairment charges, ability to hire and develop senior management and sales
associates, ability to develop and source merchandise, ability to receive
production from foreign sources on a timely basis, potential stock
repurchases, potential debt prepayments, changes in market interest rates, war
or acts of terrorism and other factors set forth in the Company's periodic
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or in materials
incorporated therein by reference.

SOURCE Destination Maternity Corporation

Judd P. Tirnauer, Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer of
Destination Maternity Corporation, +1-215-873-2278