Diamond jewellery retailer Signet Jewelers has announced it plans to close more than 150 stores, in the fiscal year 2020 (FY2020), as part of its turnaround strategy amid falling fourth quarter (Q4) sales.

The retailer, which operates jewellery brands such as Kay, Zales and Jared, reported weak holiday season sales, which required it to cut its profit outlook. It reported a 2% decline in same-store sales for the Q4 2019 ending 2 February, as well as a 0.1% drop in same-store sales for the full fiscal year 2019 (FY2019).

“We did not finish the year as strongly as expected due to a highly competitive promotional environment, continued consumer weakness in the UK and lower than expected customer demand.”

Signet Jewelers closed 262 stores during the FY2019, of which 232 were in North America. The retailer operates over 3,500 outlets and has launched a plan to close 13% or around 455 outlets during a three-year period.

Signet Jewelers CEO Virginia C. Drosos said: “We made progress on our Path to Brilliance initiatives, achieving double-digit eCommerce growth, delivering $85m of net cost savings, and continuing to optimise our store footprint.

“However, we did not finish the year as strongly as expected due to a highly competitive promotional environment, continued consumer weakness in the UK and lower than expected customer demand for legacy merchandise collections that impacted our holiday fourth quarter results.”

As per the FY2020 guidance, the company expects same-store sales to be down 2.5% to flat and total sales to be in the range of $6bn to $6.1bn.

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Signet Jewelers said it is currently focusing on its products, marketing and online business. It also plans to open 20 to 25 stores during FY2020.