CTRN Citi Trends Inc

UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

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FORM 10-K

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☒   Annual Report Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

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For the fiscal year ended February 1, 2025

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Or

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☐   Transition Report Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

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For the transition period from                to                

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Commission File Number: 001-41886

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CITI TRENDS, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

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Registrant’s telephone number, including area code   (912) 236-1561

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Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

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Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

None

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Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.   Yes  ☐    No  ☒

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Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act.   Yes  ☐    No  ☒

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Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.   Yes  ☒    No  ☐

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Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).  Yes  ☒    No  ☐

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Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

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If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

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Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report.  ☒

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If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements.  ☐

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Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to § 240.10D-1(b)).  ☐

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Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act).   Yes  ☐    No  ☒

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State the aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates computed by reference to the price at which the common equity was last sold, or the average bid and asked price of such common equity, as of the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter: $142,215,971 as of August 3, 2024.

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Indicate the number of shares outstanding of each of the registrant’s classes of common stock, as of the latest practicable date: Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share, 8,277,733 shares outstanding as of April 10, 2025.

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DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

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CITI TRENDS, INC.

FORM 10-K

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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2

PART I

Some statements in, or incorporated by reference into, this Annual Report on Form 10-K (this “Report”) of Citi Trends, Inc. (“Citi Trends,” “we,” “us,” or the “Company”) may constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). All statements other than historical facts contained in this Report, including statements regarding our future financial results and position, business policy and plans, objectives and expectations of management for future operations and capital allocation expectations, are forward-looking statements. The words “believe,” “anticipate,” “project,” “plan,” “expect,” “trend,” “estimate,” “objective,” “forecast,” “upcoming,” “goal,” “intend,” “may,” “could,” “will likely result,” or “will continue” and similar expressions, as they relate to us, are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain such language. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events, including, among other things: general economic conditions, including inflation, energy and fuel costs, unemployment levels, and any deterioration whether caused by acts of war, terrorism, political or social unrest (including any resulting store closures, damage or loss of inventory) or other factors; changes in market interest rates and market levels of wages; the imposition of new taxes on imports, new tariffs and changes in existing tariff rates; the imposition of new trade restrictions and changes in existing trade restrictions; impacts of natural disasters such as hurricanes; uncertainty and economic impact of pandemics, epidemics or other public health emergencies; transportation and distribution delays or interruptions; changes in freight rates; the Company’s ability to attract and retain workers; the Company’s ability to negotiate effectively the cost and purchase of merchandise inventory risks due to shifts in market demand; the Company’s ability to gauge fashion trends and changing consumer preferences; consumer confidence and changes in consumer spending patterns; competition within the industry; competition in our markets; the duration and extent of any economic stimulus programs; changes in product mix; interruptions in suppliers’ businesses; risks related to cybersecurity, data privacy and intellectual property; temporary changes in demand due to weather patterns; seasonality of the Company’s business; the results of pending or threatened litigation; delays associated with building, remodeling, opening and operating new stores; and delays associated with building, opening or expanding new or existing distribution centers.

These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including those described in Item 1A. Risk Factors and elsewhere in this Report and the other documents we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including our reports on Form 8-K and Form 10-Q, and any amendments thereto. Because forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, some of which cannot be predicted or quantified, you should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. The events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements may not be achieved or occur and actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of such statements. Except as required by applicable law, including the securities laws of the United States and the rules and regulations of the SEC, we do not plan to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements contained in this Report, whether as a result of any new information, future events or otherwise.

Information is provided herein with respect to our operations related to our fiscal years ended on February 1, 2025 (“fiscal 2024”), February 3, 2024 (“fiscal 2023”) and January 28, 2023 (“fiscal 2022”).

ITEM 1.BUSINESS

Overview

Citi Trends, Inc. (“Citi Trends” or the “Company”) is a highly differentiated off-price value retailer known for trendy fashions, great brands and amazing prices. We offer culturally relevant fashion – what we call “Cultural Cachet” – in apparel, accessories and home goods, primarily for African American families in the United States. We curate a three tiered mix of product featuring well-known brands, core product and opening price goods, with intermittent extreme value deals. Our core product styles are curated trend-right, high quality, value for the price. We offer an assortment of opening price product for the price conscious customer, all sold at competitive prices. Plus, for the treasure hunters, we often have “extreme value” product deals on well-known branded product at 50% to 75% off MSRP. Consumer insights research validates that our unique culturally relevant styling, and strong value for the price fosters deep customer loyalty and high shopping frequency in the neighborhoods in which we operate.

Our stores are strategically located in vibrant African American neighborhoods with product offerings for the entire family. Our stores average approximately 11,000 square feet of selling space and are typically found in outdoor community shopping centers across a variety of urban, suburban and rural markets. As of February 1, 2025, we operated 591 stores in 33 states.

We believe the combination of product curated with Cultural Cachet at amazing prices, and the large scale of our 591 neighborhood stores is extremely hard to duplicate which gives us a defensible moat against competition.

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Competitive Strengths and Strategies

Citi Trends is one of the largest national retailers focused on African American customers. With 591 stores located in the neighborhoods we serve, our customers rely on us as a leading off-price value retailer of apparel, accessories and home trends. Because of our long-term presence in the African American community, our customers are highly engaged and loyal to Citi Trends. We strive to provide an engaging and exciting shopping experience supported by fresh product and a friendly, welcoming staff. We believe the following business strengths differentiate us from our competitors and are important to our success.

Focus on Fashion and Trend Mix. We curate our merchandise assortment to be fashionable and fresh, recognizing that our customers use style as a form of personal expression. We devote considerable effort to identifying emerging trends and ensuring that our wide assortment of apparel and non-apparel merchandise is curated to appeal to the preferences of African American customers. Our buying team actively manages a dynamic blend of essentials, fashion-forward pieces, trending items and recognized brands, all at strong value prices to keep the assortment fresh, relevant and culturally attuned.

Superior Value Proposition. We seek to offer high quality, fashionable merchandise with Cultural Cachet and believe that our value proposition provides important access to trends for our customers. We know that our customers are willing to spend more when the fashion is on trend, the brand is right, and the price-value proposition is strong. The majority of our product is ticketed with compare at pricing to demonstrate our pricing superiority against competition. We do not employ high-low pricing strategies; instead, our everyday ticketed low price points offer superior value, enabling our customers to purchase multiple items per visit. We focus on a balanced three-tiered assortment along with an increasing selection of off-price ‘treasures’ – nationally known brands at incredible values. We do not rely on promotion-driven sales and instead seek to build our reputation through a steady stream of weekly in-store deliveries of the latest trends at great prices which drives word-of-mouth awareness and excitement in the neighborhoods we serve.

Fashions for the Entire Family. We merchandise our stores to create a specialty store environment that serves as a destination that meets the apparel and non-apparel needs of the entire family. Every store offers a comprehensive selection of always-changing, curated products for men, women and children with a range of size options in each category. In addition, we offer home goods and consumables. We believe that our small-footprint stores, combined with a specialty store experience, friendly customer service where we often know our customers’ names, and breadth of merchandise, distinguishes our stores from many competitors and creates an exciting and welcoming environment that encourages repeat visits from the local community.

Strong and Flexible Sourcing Relationships. We maintain strong, long-standing sourcing relationships with a large group of suppliers while continually opening new relationships with both well-known and up-and-coming brands. We believe that our access to the African American customer drives vendor interest. Our buying team plans, develops and creates curated assortments by (i) purchasing goods developed specifically for our customer, (ii) selecting products for our customers from vendor product lines, (iii) buying opportunistically available excess inventory from reliable vendors, with the majority of our merchandise purchased for the current season and a lesser quantity held for sale in future seasons and (iv) buying extreme value, off-price deals to offer exciting national brands at significantly reduced prices. Our vendor partnerships enable us to deliver fresh items weekly to our stores. This fresh assortment, coupled with exciting and surprising off-price deals, creates a shopping experience that can’t be easily replicated in an on-line environment, positioning us as an “instant gratification store”, allowing our customers to “buy now, wear now”, avoiding shipping fees and the wait for their potential online orders. This approach allows us to offer exceptional value that goes beyond mere price – it’s the thrill of discovering fresh styles that fosters a deep, in-person connection with our customers.

Dynamic Experience in a Friendly, Neat, Clean and Organized Environment. We seek to provide a fashion-focused shopping environment that is easy to navigate, encouraging shopping across divisions with a well-laid-out floor plan and exciting product displays throughout the space. We use a combination of style groupings, outfit suggestions and by-size displays to balance ease of shopping with suggestive selling. In each department, we showcase opening price-point offerings to enhance our strong value statement. Our stores are neat, clean and organized, offering a friendly environment where customers are encouraged to linger, explore and visit often. We are focused on refreshing and remodeling our store base to keep our stores current and continually refine our store format to ensure that we meet the needs of our customers and our store associates.

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Friendly and Helpful Store Associates. Our store associates are trained to provide friendly and helpful customer service to deliver a positive shopping experience. Many of our store associates live in the neighborhoods where our stores are located and frequently shop our stores themselves. We have a long heritage of a diverse and inclusive workplace; 91% of our store associates are African American or multicultural, and more than 90% of our store management positions are filled by women. As a result, our store associates cultivate a unique culture in our stores that creates a high level of connectivity with our customers. We strive to make our stores a destination where everyone is welcome, and our store associates foster that vision every day through enriched customer engagement.

Compelling, Convenient and Cost-Effective Neighborhood Store Locations. We locate our stores in high-traffic outdoor neighborhood shopping centers that are convenient primarily to African American families. Our location strategy allows us to be an integral part of the communities we serve while providing convenience for our customers. We believe that these neighborhood locations are difficult to duplicate, creating a competitive moat for our brand. We generally utilize previously occupied store sites in locations where we are often the brightest and cleanest store in the shopping center, which enables us to obtain attractive rents while establishing ourselves as neighborhood cornerstones. When opening new stores, we seek to partner with landlords that contribute to buildout costs, which helps maintain lower startup and fixturing investment.

Highly Talented and Motivated Leadership Team. Our senior management team, led by Ken Seipel, our Chief Executive Officer, has extensive retail experience across a broad range of disciplines, including merchandising, real estate, finance, store operations, supply chain management, human resources and information technology. Our management team plans and drives our growth strategy, which is based on our constant focus on providing trend-driven merchandise anchored in value to the mid to lower income African American populations. We believe our management team is integral to our success and positions us well for long-term growth.

Business Strategy

With our focus on culturally-relevant fashion, exciting brands, and accessible pricing in each of our neighborhood locations, we believe that Citi Trends is in a unique position to serve our loyal customer base, with a long runway for comp sales growth, store unit growth and a motivated leadership team supported by a healthy balance sheet.

We have identified the following areas of focus to restore the Company’s financial performance and to maximize long-term growth:

Offer Compelling Value Proposition. Our three-tiered product strategy of opening prices, core value product and familiar brands, all focused on the wants and needs of our African American customers, differentiates our model while driving customer loyalty and repeat visits. We are known for delivering newness and freshness, resulting in high customer frequency. We offer a balanced assortment of good, better and best products that resonates with our customer base across income levels. We highlight our opening price point offerings consistently across departments, ensuring our value-conscious customers can easily identify these options. Our core value product is the bedrock of our business, and we are focused on ensuring quality-for-price in this important tier. Our research confirms that our customers have good disposable income and respond positively to recognizable brands with a willingness to trade up. This insight has guided our branded merchandise strategy which will become a larger part of our product assortment. We are expanding our offering of “treasures,” or extreme value product offerings, enabling us to offer well-known brands at a significant discount to the market. Our product strategy is supported by our open-to-buy process which allows us to be flexible and responsive to emerging trends. We practice rigorous inventory management, prioritizing choice and breadth over depth, improving our speed to market and driving faster turns.

Focus on the African American Customer. We are one of the largest national retailers focused on African American customers. Our customers are at the core of what we do, central to our business and critical to our success. Our customers are fashion conscious and prioritize style as an expression of self. Recent extensive customer research revealed that about one third of our customers visit our stores weekly or bi-weekly and have incomes in the $75k to $150k range. The next largest tier visits monthly with incomes in the range of $50k to $75k. We also serve a base of less frequent, lower income customers who are more budget conscious. The income capacity of our two most frequent tiers of customers is the biggest realization from our recent research, qualifying the previous assumption that our entire customer base was in the low-income category. We believe that this refined understanding of our customer will strengthen our ability to predict their wants and needs, driving increased traffic and conversion in our stores.

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Consistent Operational Excellence. Our objective is to be fast, consistent and efficient. We believe that our ability to produce strong, consistent and sustainable financial results depends on the development of fundamental retail practices and consistent execution. We have taken fast action to improve access to information and to develop consistent key performance indicators to drive business results. We have refined our product allocation methodology and are investing in artificial intelligence (“AI”)-based technology to drive more effective and efficient product allocation processes. We have made improvements to our supply chain speed and we are driving additional improvements to further reduce speed to store as well as to reduce our working capital needs. We have implemented improved product planning practices focused on pre-season strategy and open-to-buy to support growing categories. Each of these improvements is supported by having the right talent in place. We believe that these foundational improvements will drive near-term financial results while positioning us for future, accelerated growth.

Growth. We believe that our 591 stores located in the heart of African American neighborhoods is a key differentiator of our business that gives us a defensible moat around our business and store base. To improve the financial performance of the company, we are focused on improving productivity in our existing stores by sharpening our focus on our African American customers and strategically investing in product categories identified for intensification through our customer insights studies, both with a goal of driving increased foot traffic and basket. Finally, we believe that an integral part of our sales growth is the continued refinement of our store format, incorporating customer feedback and insights from operational results to improve the in-store experience and enhance profitability. We are remodeling existing stores to the updated format, and all new stores will open in the revised format.

While we believe that maximizing the productivity of our existing fleet provides significant near-term opportunity for sales and earnings growth, we continue to believe that Citi Trends has the potential to grow, and we expect to accelerate square footage expansion in the range of 6% to 10% annually over time.

People. We believe that our people are a key differentiator for our business and are key to the continued transformation of our company. Our buying team is trained to understand our customers, what motivates them to shop at Citi Trends and what creates an emotional connection to the brand. Our buyers also cultivate strong relationships with the vendor community to ensure access to the exciting, trend-right product that our customers rely on us to provide. We believe that our store associates, many of whom come from the neighborhoods we serve, are another key component of the in-store experience. They create an exciting and welcoming shopping experience for our customers and serve as a valuable source of insights on our core customers’ needs and preferences. Our leadership team is made up of functional experts who are adept at leading through change. Under the direction of Ken Seipel, our Chief Executive Officer, we believe that our people are key to the Company’s success.

We strongly believe that our business strategy centered around these five areas will restore our financial performance and accelerate our long-term sales and earnings growth.

Product and Value

Our merchandising strategy focuses on delivering fresh, fashionable and trend-right apparel, accessories and home products at exceptional value for cost-conscious African American families. As the go-to family store in the neighborhood, we are committed to maintaining a diverse, seasonally relevant assortment that reflects the bold style and preferences of our customers. Our product offerings include a balanced mix of privately developed brands and nationally recognized labels, ensuring both quality and affordability.

Our merchandise is represented by six distinct divisions within the store:

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The following table provides the percentage of net sales for each Division within the store:

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Our goal is to deliver outstanding value every day. We do this by offering access to fashion and trends at affordable prices that are desirable for African American families. As a normal course, we do not engage in promotional activity such as high-low pricing, coupons or sales other than our regularly scheduled markdowns. Our assortment balances tiers of good, better, best products, ensuring a broad appeal across diverse income levels. The flexibility of our model allows our pricing structure to fluctuate in response to marketplace changes while maintaining our merchandise margins. Both branded and non-branded offerings validate our fashion and value to our customers.

Sourcing and Allocation

We believe that our flexible, value-conscious business model and ever-changing assortment that results from our fresh flow of inventory differentiates us from traditional retailers. We source our merchandise from thousands of domestic manufacturers and importers. Our merchandising division consists of a buying team, a planning team and an allocation team.

Our buyers have extensive experience and have developed long-standing relationships with many of our vendors. Our buying office is located in New York City, and the team travels regularly to the major United States markets, visiting manufacturers and attending national and regional trade shows.

Our buying team sources merchandise through multiple channels to ensure a fresh and trendy assortment. First, we work with a continuously evolving network of vendors that manufacture products exclusively for Citi Trends’ core customers. Our buyers collaborate with these vendors who specialize in trend identification and product development to design and manufacture exclusive products for Citi Trends, providing our fashion-savvy customers with unique standout styles they won’t find anywhere else. Second, we maintain partnerships with nationally recognized brands and labels, collaborating to customize products in size, color and style to align with the specific needs and preferences of our customers. Third, we leverage all of our vendor relationships to opportunistically buy close-out product at incredible value. Fourth, we buy extreme value, off-price deals from a wide variety of sources, allowing us to offer our customers exciting national brands at significantly reduced prices.

While almost all of our merchandise is first-quality and delivered in-season, we also purchase high-quality excess inventory at advantageous pricing with the intent of selling later in the same season or the following season. This allows us to deliver extreme value on select highly desirable goods.

We allocate merchandise across our stores according to fact-based plans that are created by our planning and allocation teams. Our staff utilizes a centralized management system to monitor merchandise purchasing, planning and allocation to manage inventory turnover, identify and respond to changing customer demands and determine the timing of markdowns. We simplified our allocation methodology in fiscal 2024, enabling us to more effectively allocate products, strategically distributing them across three store volume definitions: high, average and low. In fiscal 2024, we also launched a test of an AI-based allocation system that will use predictive analytics to forecast sales trends, further enhancing our product allocation capabilities. We expect that system to be fully implemented by the second half of fiscal 2025. These upgrades should optimize our inventory distribution to better meet the needs of our customers. Our buyers also regularly review the age and performance of merchandise and manage both the reordering and markdown processes.

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Store Operations

Our stores are located in the heart of the mid to lower income neighborhoods we serve. We hire a diverse staff of women and men from the local area surrounding our stores. As of February 1, 2025, 91% of our store associates are African American or multicultural, and more than 90% of our store management positions are filled by women. We cater to entire families and offer a compelling shopping experience in the communities in which we operate. We welcome everyone with “Hi, welcome to Citi Trends,” and we develop a longstanding rapport with many of our customers, many of whom we know by name. Every Citi Trends store presents a specialty store environment with a wide array of product offerings.

The average selling space of our 591 stores is approximately 11,000 square feet, which allows us the space and flexibility to organize our six product divisions in exciting and appealing ways. The unobstructed floor plan allows the customer to see almost all of the different product areas from the store entrance and provides us the flexibility to easily expand and contract departments in response to customer demand, seasonality and merchandise availability. Nearly all of our inventory is displayed on the selling floor. Our mission is to curate culturally relevant fashion, great brands and compelling price points for our core customers in an exciting shopping environment. A critical component of our success is to maintain an environment that is neat, clean and organized, where everyone is welcome.

The typical store is staffed with a Store Manager and multiple Assistant Managers, along with five to eight part-time Sales associates, all of whom rotate work days on a shift basis. Our associates are critical to achieving our goals, and we strive to hire motivated associates from the local community with high energy levels. We have well-established store operating policies and procedures and an extensive 30-day in-store training program for new Store Managers and Assistant Managers. Sales associates also participate in a 14-day customer service and store procedures training program, which is designed to enable them to assist customers in a friendly and helpful manner.

We offer a layaway program, allowing customers to purchase merchandise by initially paying a 20% deposit and a $2 service charge. At various times throughout the year, we reduce the deposit requirement to 10% and waive the service charge in connection with promotional events. The customer then makes additional payments every two weeks and has 60 days to complete the purchase. If the purchase is not completed, the customer receives a Citi Trends gift card for amounts paid less a re-stocking and layaway service fee. In addition, we offer a buy-now-pay-later program through an external vendor that allows customers to split purchases into four installments over six weeks.

Our unique focus on African American families offers us the opportunity to pinpoint highly targeted and highly visible store locations. Cost-effective store locations are an important part of our store profitability model. Accordingly, we look for locations in high-traffic outdoor neighborhood shopping centers that offer attractive rents and meet our demographic and economic criteria. We have a dedicated real estate management team responsible for new store site selection, and we employ rigorous analysis to approve final store selection decisions. In selecting a location, we target urban, suburban and rural markets, and our strategy includes both further densification of existing markets and entering new markets over time. In addition, we require convenient site accessibility, as well as strong co-tenants, such as grocery stores, dollar stores, beauty stores and other value stores. We aim to be an integral part of our customers’ community by providing a compelling shopping destination and career opportunities.

Advertising and Marketing

Our marketing goals are to build awareness of the Citi Trends brand, promote customers’ association of the Citi Trends brand with value, quality, fashion and everyday low prices, engage our customers in meaningful ways, and drive traffic into our stores. We generally focus our organic advertising efforts on emails, social media and text messaging. We use our social media channels to highlight our brand and engage our customers with compelling digital content on a regular basis. We generally focus our paid marketing efforts on radio, digital ads, paid social media influencers, and website retargeting. Our website, cititrends.com, showcases our latest products and provides information about our business, our store locations, and more.

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Distribution

The majority of merchandise sold in our stores is shipped directly from our company-operated distribution centers in Darlington, South Carolina and Roland, Oklahoma, utilizing third-party delivery partners. Our stores receive multiple shipments of merchandise each week from our distribution centers. In addition, we utilize a vendor direct-to-store shipping program that enables us to expedite the delivery of select merchandise to our stores by shipping directly from our vendors.

The Darlington distribution center has 550,000 square feet of space, and the Roland distribution center has 565,000 square feet of space. The distribution centers’ value-added services include, but are not limited to, receiving, price ticketing, packing and shipping specific store-allocated quantities. We continue to evaluate distribution, transportation and supply chain alternatives to accelerate the movement of merchandise from our vendor origin points to our stores as optimally as possible.

Information Technology and Systems

We have information systems in place to support our core business functions, using a combination of industry-standard third-party products and internally developed applications. These systems support purchase order management, price and markdown management, merchandise planning and allocation, general ledger, accounts payable, sales audit, loss prevention, store operations and supply chain functions.

In fiscal 2024, we launched multiple initiatives to advance our technology ecosystem. These projects include leveraging AI capabilities in key areas such as allocation, loss prevention, and store operations which we anticipate completing in fiscal 2025. Moving forward, we will continue to explore AI-capabilities in our systems as we expect them to improve our operational and execution capabilities.

Competition

The markets we serve are highly competitive. We compete with a broad range of retailers, including national chains, mass merchants, discount stores and specialty stores with both physical locations and online stores. We believe we have a competitive advantage in our offering of culturally relevant fashion and trends at everyday low prices, and that our strategy of focusing on African American customers puts us in a unique competitive position. We also believe we offer a more inviting store format than the traditional retailers, including our assortment and layout of merchandise, use of colorful signage, and use of fixtures that are easy to shop. Our competitors generally focus less on trend-driven apparel and, within their apparel offering, lack the Cultural Cachet that appeals to our core customers. As a result, we believe there is significant demand for an off-price value retailer that addresses the market of African American customers who seek extreme value for fashion apparel, accessories and home goods. See Item 1A. Risk Factors in this Report for additional information regarding competition in our markets.

Intellectual Property

Our trademarks and service marks have significant value and are important to our marketing efforts. Our marks registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office include “Citi Trends,” “Citi Steps,” “Citi Trends Fashion for Less,” “CitiHome,” “CITIcares,” “MCMXXXIII,” “Lil Ms Hollywood,” “Red Ape,” and “Vintage Harlem.” Our policy is to pursue registration of our marks and to vigorously protect them.

Seasonality

The nature of our business is seasonal. Historically, sales in the first and fourth quarters have been higher than sales achieved in the second and third quarters of the fiscal year. Expenses and, to a greater extent, operating income, vary by quarter. Results may fluctuate due to changes in our business, consumer spending patterns and the macroeconomic environment. Furthermore, the seasonal nature of our business may affect comparisons between periods.

Human Capital Management

The success of Citi Trends is directly attributable to our people and their passion to achieve our performance goals. We recognize the importance of attracting and retaining top talent in our workforce that reflects the neighborhoods we serve. We strive to make Citi Trends a diverse, inclusive and safe workplace, with opportunities for our associates to grow and develop in their careers, supported by competitive compensation, benefits and health and wellness programs, and by programs that build connections between our associates and their communities.

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Associates. As of February 1, 2025, we had approximately 2,600 full-time and approximately 2,000 part-time associates. Of these associates, approximately 3,800 are employed in our stores and the remainder are employed in our distribution centers, buying offices and corporate office. We are not a party to any collective bargaining agreements, and none of our associates are represented by a labor union.

“CITI LIFE” - Corporate Culture. Our purpose and values culture is a primary driver of how our teams collaborate on projects and initiatives that contribute to our results and ability to attract new talent who desire to work for a purpose-led brand. The foundation of “Citi Life” is that Life is best when you Live BOLD, Live PROUD and Respect ALL. This is supported by our five core values that define who we are as a Company:

We believe these core values represent the emotional connection that our customers and associates have with Citi Trends and are integral to the successful achievement of our long-term growth plans.

Diversity and Inclusion. Our objective is to ensure that our workforce reflects the ethnicity and cultural sensibilities of our customer base, with a particular focus on the African American community. We believe that a diverse and inclusive team is critical to our success. We strive to foster an intentionally inclusive, diverse and productive working environment where our associates are valued and respected. We continue to focus on attracting, developing and retaining team members that reflect the diverse communities we serve. As of February 1, 2025, 85% of our team members are African American or multicultural and 81% are female. In addition, three of our eight board members are African American females.

Health, Safety and Wellness. The success of our business is fundamentally connected to the well-being of our people. Accordingly, we are committed to the health, safety and wellness of our associates. We follow guidance released by state and federal health officials to create a safe environment for our associates to work and our customers to shop.

Compensation and Benefits. We provide competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits programs to help meet the needs of our associates. In addition to salaries, these programs (which vary by position) include annual bonuses, stock awards, a 401(k) match, healthcare and insurance benefits, paid time off and personal/family leave.

Training and Development. Our associates are critical to achieving our goals, and we strive to hire high-energy and motivated associates. We have well-established store operating policies and procedures and an extensive 30-day in-store training program for new store management members. Sales associates also participate in a 14-day customer service and store procedures training program, which is designed to enable them to assist customers in a friendly and helpful manner. Commensurate with our purpose and values, we continually seek ways to enhance our training and development programs to further ensure they provide associates with the resources they need to help achieve their career goals and build management and leadership skills.

Neighborhood Involvement. We believe that building connections among our associates, their families and our communities creates a more meaningful, fulfilling and enjoyable workplace and a tighter-knit community. We also believe in giving back to the people and communities we serve. In August 2020, internal stakeholders convened the CITIcares Council, a diverse group of our associates who are passionate about making a difference. These associates work in every division and at every level of the company and reflect a diversity of genders, ethnicities and geographies.

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Underscoring everything we do, the Council creates and oversees initiatives that drive positive change and growth for our customers and associates. It collaborates with community leaders, organizations, individuals, and established programs in local underserved communities.

Citi Trends empowers small business owners in our store areas through our Black History Makers Grant program. Launched in 2021, the program supports Black entrepreneurs who are making an impact in their communities. It is designed to increase awareness of Black-owned businesses, and we provide ten $5,000 grants to Black business owners each year. Since its launch, CITIcares, on behalf of Citi Trends, has awarded a total of $200,000 to 40 outstanding Black entrepreneurs.

Available Information

Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, proxy statements, and amendments to those reports, as well as other information that we file or furnish with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) are available free of charge at https://ir.cititrends.com as soon as reasonably practicable after we file or furnish such material to the SEC. In addition, the SEC maintains a website at http://www.sec.gov that contains information we electronically file or furnish to the SEC. Our Corporate Governance Guidelines, Code of Ethics and the charters for the committees of our board of directors are also available free of charge at https://ir.cititrends.com or in print upon request. Information on our website is not part of this or any other report we file or furnish to the SEC.

ITEM 1A.RISK FACTORS

You should carefully consider the following risk factors, together with the other information contained or incorporated by reference into this Report and our other filings with the SEC. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we deem to be currently immaterial also may impair our business operations. The occurrence of any of the following risks could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Risks Related to our Business and Operations

Our success depends on our ability to anticipate, identify and respond rapidly to changes in consumers’ fashion tastes, and our failure to adequately evaluate fashion trends could have an adverse effect on our business strategy, financial condition and results of operations.

The apparel industry and our core customer in particular are subject to rapidly evolving fashion trends and shifting consumer demands. Accordingly, our success is heavily dependent on our ability to anticipate, identify and capitalize on emerging fashion and home trends, including products, styles and materials that will appeal to our target consumers. A failure on our part to anticipate, identify or react appropriately and timely to changes in styles, trends, brand preferences and images is likely to lead to lower demand for our merchandise. Further, there can be no assurance that our new product offerings will have the same level of acceptance as past product offerings or that we will be able to adequately and timely respond to the preferences of our customers. These could cause, among other things, sales declines, excess inventories and higher markdowns, which could materially adversely affect our business and our brand image.

If we are unsuccessful in competing with our retail apparel competitors, our market share could decline or our growth could be impaired and, as a result, our business strategy, financial condition and results of operations could be negatively impacted.

The retail apparel and home fashion businesses are highly competitive, and we compete against a diverse group of retailers, including national chains, mass merchants, smaller discount retail chains, some of which sell only women’s products, and general merchandise discount stores that offer a variety of products, including apparel, home fashions and other merchandise we sell for the value-conscious consumer. We also compete against local specialty retail stores, regional retail chains, traditional department stores, web-based retail stores and other direct retailers.

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The level of competition we face from these retailers varies depending on the product segment, as many of our competitors do not offer apparel for the entire family. Our greatest competition is generally in women’s apparel. We compete with many retailers that are larger than we are with substantially greater resources that can, as a result, adapt better to changing market conditions, better exploit new opportunities and exert greater pricing pressures on suppliers than we can. Many of these retailers also have better name recognition among consumers than we do. Our local and regional competitors may have more extensive knowledge of the consumer base and may be able to garner more loyalty from customers than we can. If the consumer base we serve is satisfied with the selection, quality and price of our competitors’ products, consumers may decide not to shop in our stores. Additionally, if our existing competitors or other retailers decide to focus more on our core customers, we may have greater difficulty in competing effectively. As a result of this competition, we may experience pricing pressures, increased marketing expenditures, as well as loss of market share, which could materially and adversely affect our business strategy, financial condition and results of operations.

Our ability to attract consumers to our stores depends on several factors, including the success of the outdoor neighborhood shopping centers where our stores are primarily located.

The success of an individual store can depend on favorable placement within a given shopping center as well as the volume of traffic generated by the other destination retailers and the anchor stores in the shopping centers where our stores are located. We cannot control the development of alternative shopping destinations near our existing stores or the availability or cost of real estate within existing or new shopping destinations. If a destination retailer or anchor store in our shopping centers closes or leaves, or if there is significant deterioration of the surrounding areas in which our stores are located, it could result in reduced sales at our stores and leave us with excess inventory, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial results or business. Additionally, we are in the process of renovating a number of our stores. If these remodels do not attract new or existing customers to our stores or otherwise drive an increase in sales, then this may have an adverse impact on our business and results of operations.

We do not offer the option to purchase our products through the internet. As the retail industry experiences an increase in online sales, our sales could be adversely affected.

The retail landscape has changed with some consumers shifting spend from traditional brick-and-mortar stores to online retailers. The continued growth of online sales could have a negative impact on our sales, as our customers may decide to make purchases through online retailers.

Our sales, inventory levels and earnings fluctuate on a seasonal basis, which makes our business more susceptible to adverse events that occur during the first and fourth quarters.

Historically, our sales and earnings are significantly higher during the first and fourth quarters each year due to the importance of the spring selling season, which includes the tax refund season and Easter, and the fall selling season, which includes Christmas. Factors that negatively affect us during the first and fourth quarters, including adverse weather, pandemics or other seasonal public health emergencies, cybersecurity events, unfavorable economic conditions, reduced governmental assistance, and tax refund patterns for our customers, will have a greater adverse effect on our financial condition than if our business was less seasonal.

Seasonal fluctuations also affect our inventory levels. While we believe we have a flexible supply chain, we often enter into agreements to purchase merchandise well in advance of the applicable selling season and before trends are confirmed by sales. Therefore, we are vulnerable to changes in consumer preference and demand between the time we design and order our merchandise and the season in which this merchandise will be sold. If we are not able to accurately predict customers’ preferences for our fashion items, we may have either too much inventory which may result in increased markdowns and lower margins or inventory shortages, which may result in lost sales. In either event, our sales may be lower and our cost of sales may be higher than historical levels, which could have a material adverse effect on our business strategy, financial condition and results of operations.

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We could experience a reduction in sales if we are unable to fulfill our current and future merchandising needs.

We depend on our suppliers for the continued availability and satisfactory quality of our merchandise. Our suppliers could discontinue selling to us at any time. Additionally, if the manufacturers or other owners of brands or trademarks terminate the license agreements under which some of our suppliers sell our products, we may be unable to obtain replacement merchandise of comparable fashion appeal or quality, in the same quantities or at the same prices. In addition, a number of our suppliers are smaller, less capitalized companies and are more likely to be impacted by unfavorable general economic and market conditions than larger and better capitalized companies, negatively impacting their ability to supply their products to us. If we lose the services of one or more of our significant suppliers or one or more of them fail to meet our merchandising needs, we may be unable to timely or adequately replace the merchandise we currently source with merchandise provided elsewhere, which could negatively impact our sales and results of operations.

Failure to properly manage and allocate our inventory could have an adverse effect on our business strategy, sales, margins, financial condition, and results of operations.

In order to better serve our customers and maximize sales, it is important that we properly execute our inventory management strategies by appropriately allocating merchandise among our stores, timely and efficiently distributing inventory to such locations, maintaining an appropriate mix and level of inventory in such locations, responding to customer demand, and effectively managing pricing and markdowns, and there is no assurance we will be able to do so. In addition, as we continue to implement new inventory allocation initiatives, there could be disruptions in inventory flow and placement. We also face certain risks from our use of third-party order fulfillment and direct shipping including freight cost increases, timely delivery and delays due to work stoppages. Our financial performance could also be impacted by increases in shrink.

We base our purchases of inventory, in part, on our sales forecasts. If our sales forecasts do not match customer demand, we may experience higher inventory levels and need to markdown excess or slow-moving inventory, leading to decreased profit margins, or we may have insufficient inventory to meet customer demand, leading to lost sales, either of which could adversely affect our financial performance.

We rely on numerous third parties in the supply chain to produce and deliver the products that we sell, and our business may be negatively impacted by their failure to comply with applicable law.

Merchandise we sell in our stores is subject to quality and safety regulatory standards set by various governmental authorities. Regulations in this area may change from time to time. We rely on numerous third parties to supply quality merchandise that complies with product safety laws and other applicable laws, but these third parties may not comply with all such applicable laws. Violations of law by our importers, suppliers, manufacturers or distributors could result in delays in shipments and receipt of goods or damage our reputation, thus causing our sales to decline. Although our arrangements with our vendors frequently provide for indemnification for product liabilities, the vendors may fail to honor those obligations to an extent we consider sufficient or at all. Issues with the quality and safety of merchandise we sell in our stores, regardless of our fault, or customer concerns about such issues, could result in damage to our reputation, lost sales, uninsured product liability claims or losses, merchandise recalls, increased costs, and regulatory, civil or criminal fines or penalties, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our financial results. Further, we could incur liability with manufacturers or other owners of brands or trademarked products if we inadvertently receive and sell counterfeit brands, infringing products or unlicensed goods, which could adversely impact our results of operations. Although we endeavor to establish relationships with reputable vendors to reduce this risk, there is no guarantee that we will be successful in doing so.

If we fail to protect our name and brand in the marketplace, there could be a negative effect on our business and limitations on our ability to penetrate new markets.

We believe that our “Citi Trends” trademark is integral to our store design and our success in building consumer loyalty to our brand. We have registered this trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. We have also registered, or applied for registration of, additional trademarks with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that we believe are important to our business. We cannot assure that these registrations will prevent imitation of our name, merchandising concept, store design or private label merchandise or the infringement of our other intellectual property rights by others.

Further, the use of social media by us and consumers has also increased the risk that our image and reputation could be negatively impacted. Imitation of our name, concept, store design or merchandise in a manner that projects lesser quality or carries a negative connotation of our brand image or other damage to our brand image and reputation in any aspect of its operations could have an adverse effect on our reputation, business strategy, financial condition and results of operations.

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Failure to attract, motivate and retain personnel and control our labor costs could have an adverse effect on our financial condition.

Our success depends in part upon our ability to attract, motivate and retain a sufficient number of store sales associates, including store managers, who understand and appreciate our corporate culture and customers, and are able to adequately and effectively represent this culture with our customers. Like most retailers, we experience significant employee turnover rates, particularly among store sales associates and managers and distribution center associates. We therefore must continually attract, hire and train new personnel to meet our staffing needs. A significant increase in the turnover rate would increase our recruiting and training costs and could cause us to be unable to service our customers effectively.

Our ability to meet our labor needs and to control labor costs is subject to various external factors, including increased market pressures with respect to prevailing wage rates, unemployment levels and health and other insurance costs; inflation; the impact of legislation or regulations governing labor relations, minimum wage, and healthcare benefits; changing demographics; and our reputation within the labor market. These factors, together with growing competition among potential employers, may result in increased salaries, benefits, or other employee-related costs, or may impair our ability to recruit and retain employees, which could have an adverse impact on our business strategy, financial condition and results of operations.

In addition, we rely heavily on the experience and expertise of our senior management team and other key management associates, and accordingly, the loss of their services could have a material adverse effect on our business strategy and results of operations.

Risks Related to General Economic and Market Conditions

Our sales could decline and our store operations could be disrupted as a result of general economic and other factors outside of our control, such as inflation, changes in consumer spending patterns and declines in employment levels.

Downturns, or the expectation of a downturn, in general economic conditions, including the effects of unemployment levels, salaries and wage rates, inflation in rent, energy, food and other consumer good prices, interest rates, higher insurance costs, levels of consumer debt, changes in tax rates and policies (including delays in the distribution of tax refunds), government stimulus, geopolitical conflicts, consumer confidence, consumer perception of economic conditions, increased fuel costs or fuel shortages, increased shipping, transportation and distribution costs and other macroeconomic factors, could adversely affect consumer spending patterns, our sales and our results of operations.

Consumer confidence may also be affected by domestic and international political or social unrest (including related protests or disturbances), acts of war or terrorism, natural disasters, pandemics or other public health emergencies, or other significant events outside of our control. In addition, since many of our stores are located in the southeastern United States, our operations are more susceptible to regional factors than the operations of our more geographically diversified competitors. Therefore, any adverse economic conditions that have a disproportionate effect on the southeastern United States could have a greater negative effect on our sales and results of operations than on retailers with a more geographically diversified store base.

Inflation and rising commodity prices could adversely affect our business.

In addition to the impact on our customers, inflation may adversely impact our financial performance placing pressure on the prices of our products. If the cost of our products changes as a result of inflation, we may be forced to adjust our retail prices accordingly. This in turn may cause our core customer base to not purchase our products or otherwise visit our stores.

A significant disruption to our distribution centers or retail locations could have an adverse effect on our business strategy, financial condition and results of operations.

Our ability to distribute our merchandise to our store locations in a timely manner is essential to the efficient and profitable operation of our business. We have distribution centers located in Darlington, South Carolina and Roland, Oklahoma. The efficient flow of our merchandise requires that our distribution facilities be operated effectively and have adequate capacity to support our current level of operations and any anticipated increased levels that may follow from the growth of our business. Any natural disaster or other disruption to the operation of either of these facilities or our direct shipping capabilities due to fire, accidents, public health emergencies, weather conditions, including natural disasters, cybersecurity incidents or any other cause could damage a significant portion of our inventory, impair our ability to stock our stores adequately and may result in increased supply chain costs or lost sales.

In addition, the southeastern United States, where our Darlington distribution center and many of our stores are located, is vulnerable to significant damage or destruction from hurricanes and hailstorms. The midwestern United States, where our Roland distribution center and many stores are located, is vulnerable to significant damage or destruction from tornados and hailstorms. Although we maintain insurance on our stores, distribution centers and other facilities, the economic effects of a

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natural disaster that affects our distribution centers and/or a significant number of our stores could have an adverse effect on our business strategy, financial condition and results of operations.

We rely upon third-party transportation providers for all of our merchandise shipments to our distribution centers and our retail stores. Accordingly, we are subject to risks, including labor disputes or strikes, union organizing activity, inclement weather, public health emergencies, supply chain interruptions, port delays, increased freight, distribution and transportation costs, associated with such providers’ ability to provide delivery services to meet our shipping needs. Failure to deliver merchandise to our distribution centers and our retail stores in a timely, effective and economically viable manner could adversely affect our business strategy, financial condition and results of operations.

We do not own or operate any manufacturing or production facilities and therefore depend upon third parties for the manufacture of all of our merchandise. The inability of a manufacturer to ship goods on time and to our specifications, or to operate in compliance with our guidelines or any other applicable laws, could negatively impact our business strategy, financial condition and results of operations.

We do not own or operate any manufacturing or production facilities. As a result, we are dependent upon our timely receipt of quality merchandise from third-party manufacturers. If these manufacturers do not ship orders to us in a timely manner or meet our quality standards, it could cause delays in responding to consumer demands or inventory shortages and negatively affect consumer confidence in the quality and value of our brand or negatively impact our competitive position. Any of these factors could have a material adverse effect on our business strategy, financial condition or results of operations. Furthermore, we are susceptible to increases in sourcing costs, which we may not be able to pass on to customers, and changes in payment terms from manufacturers, which could adversely affect our business strategy, financial condition and results of operations.

We maintain compliance guidelines for our vendors that dictate various standards, including product quality, manufacturing practices, labor compliance and legal compliance. If any of our manufacturers fail to comply with applicable laws or these guidelines, or engage in any socially unacceptable business practices, such as poor working conditions, child labor, disregard for environmental standards or otherwise, our brand reputation could be negatively impacted and our results of operations could in turn be materially adversely affected.

Adverse trade restrictions may disrupt our supply of merchandise.

We purchase our merchandise from a large assortment of vendors, and a substantial portion of this merchandise is manufactured outside of the United States and imported by our vendors from countries such as China and other areas of the Asia-Pacific region. The product we source could become subject to new trade restrictions imposed by the United States or other foreign governments.

We also face a variety of other risks generally associated with relying on vendors that do business in foreign markets and import merchandise from abroad, such as:

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Risks Related to our Strategy

We may not be able to sustain our growth plans or successfully implement our long-term strategic goals.

Our growth strategy includes successfully opening and operating new stores, optimizing product assortment and investing in infrastructure to expand our off-price value model within our current markets and into new geographic regions. The success of opening new stores is dependent upon, among other things, the current retail environment, the identification of suitable markets and the availability of real estate that meets our criteria for traffic, square footage, co-tenancies, lease economics, demographics, and other factors, the negotiation of acceptable lease terms, construction costs, the hiring, training and retention of competent sales personnel, and the effective management of inventory to meet the needs of new and existing stores on a timely basis. Our ability to expand successfully into other geographic markets will also depend on acceptance of our retail store experience by customers in those markets. There can be no assurance that any newly opened stores will be received as well as, or achieve net sales or profitability levels consistent with, our projected targets or be comparable to those of our existing stores in the time periods estimated by us, or at all. These risks may increase with further growth, and we may not be able to execute our growth strategies successfully, on a timely basis, or at all, which may adversely affect our business plans, sales and results.

We may engage in strategic transactions that could negatively impact our liquidity, increase our expenses and present significant distractions to management.

We may consider strategic transactions and business arrangements, including, but not limited to, acquisitions, asset purchases, partnerships, joint ventures, restructurings and investments. Any such transaction may require us to incur non-recurring or other charges, may increase our near and long-term expenditures and may pose significant integration challenges or disrupt our management or business, which could harm our business strategy, financial condition and results of operations.

We depend upon strong cash flows from our operations, as well as cash on our balance sheet, to supply capital to fund our operations, growth, stock repurchases and any potential future interest obligations.

Our business depends upon the cash on our balance sheet as well as our operations to continue to generate strong cash flow to supply capital to support our general operating activities, to fund our growth and our return of cash to stockholders through our stock repurchase programs, if any, and to pay any interest obligations. Our inability to continue to generate sufficient cash flows to support these activities could adversely affect our growth plans, capital expenditures, operating expenses and financial performance, including our earnings per share. Changes in the capital and credit markets, including market disruptions, limited liquidity, inflation and interest rate fluctuations may increase the cost of financing or restrict our access to these potential sources of liquidity. Our continued access to these liquidity sources on favorable terms depends on multiple factors, including our operating performance and, if applicable, credit rating. We maintain a revolving credit facility with Bank of America through April 10, 2030 which provides for a $75 million credit commitment and a $25 million uncommitted “accordion” feature that under certain circumstances could allow us to increase the size of the facility to $100 million. As of February 1, 2025, we had no borrowings outstanding under this facility. Although we currently have available a credit facility to fund our current operating needs, if necessary, we cannot be certain that we will be able to replace our existing credit facility or refinance any future debt at a reasonable cost when necessary. We maintain deposit balances with certain financial institutions that are above the federal insurance limit. A failure of these institutions could result in loss of these deposits.

We may be unable to negotiate future leases or renegotiate current leases on the same favorable terms as we had in the past.

Our strategic growth plan depends in part on our ability to renew current leases and enter into new leases for future stores. We currently lease all of our store locations and distribution centers and are subject to the risks associated with leasing real estate. If we decide to close stores or distribution centers, we may be required to continue to perform obligations under the applicable leases, including, among other things, paying rent and operating expenses for the balance of the lease term, or paying to exercise rights to terminate, and the performance of any of these obligations may be expensive. When the current lease terms for our stores or distribution centers expire, we may be unable to negotiate renewals which could lead to the closing or relocating stores or distribution centers on less favorable terms or in a less favorable location.

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If we fail to successfully implement our various marketing efforts or if our competitors are more effective with their programs than we are, our revenue or results of operations may be adversely affected.

Customer traffic and demand for our merchandise may be influenced by our marketing efforts. Although we use marketing to drive customer traffic through various media including digital/social media and e-mail, some of our competitors expend more for their marketing programs than we do, or use different approaches than we do, which may provide them with a competitive advantage. Further, we may not effectively implement strategies with respect to rapidly evolving Internet-based and other digital or mobile communication channels, including social media. Partnerships with social media content creators may expose us to reputational or other risks. Our programs may not be or remain effective or could require increased expenditures, which could have a significant adverse effect on our revenue and results of operations.

Risks Related to Regulatory, Legal and Cybersecurity

Changes in government regulations could have an adverse effect on our business strategy, financial condition and results of operations.

We are subject to numerous federal, state and local laws and regulations that govern numerous aspects of our business. These laws and regulations, and related interpretations and enforcement activity, may change as a result of a variety of factors, including political, economic or social events. Changes in, expanded enforcement of, or adoption of new federal, state or local laws and regulations governing areas such as minimum wage or living wage requirements, workplace-regulation and other labor or employment benefits laws, supply chain, taxes, including changes to corporate tax rates, privacy and information security, or environmental regulation such as carbon emission standards and sustainability programs, transparency and reporting, could increase our costs of doing business or impact our sales, operations or profitability.

Other laws related to employee benefits and treatment of employees, including laws related to limitations on employee hours, work scheduling, supervisory status, leaves of absence, mandated health benefits or overtime pay, could also negatively impact us, such as by increasing compensation and benefits costs for overtime and medical expenses.

Any failure of our management information systems or the inability of third parties to continue to upgrade and maintain our systems could have an adverse effect on our business strategy, financial condition and results of operations.

We depend on the accuracy, reliability and proper functioning of our management information systems, including the systems used to track our sales and facilitate inventory management. We also rely on our management information systems for point-of-sale, merchandise planning and allocation, replenishment and markdowns, as well as other key business functions. We do not currently have redundant systems for all functions performed by our management information systems. Any interruption in these systems could impair our ability to manage our inventory effectively, which could have an adverse effect on our business strategy, financial condition or results of operations.

Our computer systems and the third-party systems we rely on are also subject to damage or interruption from a number of causes, including power outages; computer and telecommunications failures; computer viruses, malware, ransomware, phishing or distributed denial-of-service attacks; brute force attacks; exploiting software vulnerabilities (including “zero-day attacks”), supply chain attacks and other security incidents and cyber-attacks. Compromises, interruptions or shutdowns of our systems, including those managed by third parties, whether intentional or inadvertent, could lead to delays in our business operations and, if significant or extreme, affect our financial condition or results of operations.

In addition, the technologies and artificial intelligence tools that we incorporate into certain aspects of our operations may not generate the intended efficiencies and may impact our business results. Specifically artificial intelligence tools could have the potential to be deficient, inaccurate, or biased and if we fail to adopt and oversee the use of artificial intelligence in a thoughtful and strategic manner, it could harm our financial performance and/or our business reputation.

Failure to maintain the security of employee, customer or vendor information could expose us to litigation, government enforcement actions and materially impact our reputation and business operations.

Over the normal course of business operations, we may obtain certain private or confidential information of our employees, job applicants, customers, and vendors. If retained, this information may be stored within our internal information technology environments or hosted by third-party service providers. While we have implemented security procedures and technology that are intended to safeguard this information from cybersecurity attacks and security incidents, there can be no assurance that these measures will be adequate to safeguard against all data security incidents, system compromises or misuses of data.

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Although we continue to develop, and further enhance, our systems and processes that are designed to protect personal information and prevent data loss and other security incidents and technology disruptions, such measures cannot provide absolute security. Cyber-attacks can come in many forms, including cyber-attacks from criminal threat actors, as we experienced in fiscal 2023, acts of vandalism or theft, malware, ransomware, computer viruses or other malicious codes, phishing, brute force attacks, exploiting software vulnerabilities and zero-day attacks, supply chain attacks, employee error or malfeasance, catastrophes, and unforeseen events. The rapid evolution and increased adoption of artificial intelligence technologies by attackers may intensify our cybersecurity risks. Additionally, as we rely on third parties throughout the course of our business operations, a failure of a third-party service provider to monitor and secure their environment could lead to unauthorized access of our private or confidential information.

Any cyber-attack or compromise of our data could expose us to loss of revenue, loss of business, increased expenses, fines or sanctions, private litigation and response measures, credit card brand assessments including termination of our ability to receive credit or debit card payments, government enforcement actions, disruption of business operations, negative publicity, eroded customer confidence in the effectiveness of our data security measures, and decrease in customers’ willingness to shop in our stores which could adversely affect our business strategy, financial conditions and results of operations. Furthermore, there can be no assurance that any limitations of liability in our contracts would be enforceable or adequate or would otherwise protect us from any such liabilities or damages with respect to any particular claim.

While we maintain cyber insurance coverage, it may not be adequate for liabilities or costs actually incurred, and we cannot be certain that insurance will continue to be available to us on economically reasonable terms, or at all, or that any insurer will not deny coverage of a future claim. In addition, as the regulatory environment related to information security, data collection and use, and privacy becomes increasingly rigorous, with new and constantly changing requirements, compliance with those requirements could also result in additional costs.

Risks Relating to Ownership of our Common Stock

Our stock price is subject to volatility.

Our stock price has been volatile in the past and may be influenced in the future by a number of factors, including:

These and other factors may cause the market price and demand for our common stock to fluctuate substantially, which may limit or prevent investors from readily selling their shares of common stock and may otherwise negatively affect the liquidity of our common stock. In addition, the stock markets experience significant price and trading volume fluctuations from time to time, and the market prices and trading volumes of the equity securities of retailers have been volatile, including our common stock. These broad market fluctuations may adversely affect the market price of our common stock.

We cannot provide any guaranty of future cash dividend payments or future repurchase of our common stock pursuant to a share repurchase program.

Any determination to declare and pay cash dividends on our common stock in the future will be based, among other things, on our board of directors’ conclusion in each instance that the declaration and payment of a cash dividend is in the best interest of our stockholders and is in compliance with all laws and agreements applicable to the dividend and upon our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and cash requirements. Additionally, there can be no assurance that our existing share repurchase authorizations will be completed or that our board of directors will approve additional repurchase programs in the future. We presently have no intention to reinstate the dividend, and there can be no assurance that we will resume paying dividends on a regular basis.

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Provisions in our certificate of incorporation and by-laws and Delaware law may delay or prevent our acquisition by a third party.

Our third amended and restated certificate of incorporation and our fourth amended and restated by-laws contain several provisions that may make it more difficult for a third party to acquire control of us without the approval of our board of directors. These provisions include, among other things, advance notice for raising business or making nominations at stockholder meetings and “blank check” preferred stock. Blank check preferred stock enables our board of directors, without stockholder approval, to designate and issue additional series of preferred stock with such dividend, liquidation, conversion, voting or other rights, including convertible securities with no limitations on conversion, as our board of directors may determine, including rights to dividends and proceeds in a liquidation that are senior to the common stock.

We are also subject to several provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law that could delay, prevent or deter a merger, acquisition, tender offer, proxy contest or other transaction that might otherwise result in our stockholders receiving a premium over the market price for their common stock or may otherwise be in the best interests of our stockholders.

Our business could be negatively affected as a result of the actions of activist stockholders.

If faced with a proxy contest or other activist stockholder action in the future, we may not be able to respond successfully to the contest or action, which could be disruptive to our business. Even if we are successful, our business could be adversely affected by any proxy contest or activist stockholder action involving us because:

These actions could cause the market price of our common stock to experience periods of volatility.

ITEM 1B.UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

None.

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ITEM 1C.CYBERSECURITY

Governance

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ITEM 2.PROPERTIES

Store Locations

As of February 1, 2025, we operated 591 stores located in 33 states. Our stores average approximately 11,000 square feet of selling space and are typically located in outdoor community shopping centers that are convenient to mid- to low-income African American customers.

We have no franchising relationships, and all of the stores are company operated. All existing 591 stores, totaling 7.9 million total square feet and 6.5 million selling square feet, are leased under operating leases. The typical store lease is for five years with options to extend the lease term for three additional five-year periods. Nearly all store leases provide us the right to cancel following an initial three-year period in the event the store does not meet pre-determined sales levels. The table below sets forth the number of stores in each of the 33 states in which we operated as of February 1, 2025:

Corporate Offices and Distribution Center Facilities

We own a facility in Savannah, Georgia which serves as our headquarters and, to a lesser extent, as a storage facility. In addition, we currently lease office space in New York City.

We lease and operate two distribution centers, one in Darlington, South Carolina totaling approximately 550,000 square feet, and another in Roland, Oklahoma totaling approximately 565,000 square feet.

We believe our facilities are suitable and adequate to meet our current business and operational needs.

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ITEM 3.LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

We are from time to time involved in various legal proceedings incidental to the conduct of our business, including claims by customers, employees or former employees. Once it becomes probable that we will incur costs in connection with a legal proceeding and such costs can be reasonably estimated, we establish appropriate reserves. While legal proceedings are subject to uncertainties and the outcome of any such matter is not predictable, we are not aware of any legal proceedings pending or threatened against us that we expect to have a material adverse effect on our business strategy, financial condition, results of operations or liquidity.

See Note 7 to the Financial Statements for a summary of certain ongoing legal proceedings. Such information is incorporated into this Part I, Item 3 – “Legal Proceedings” by reference.

ITEM 4.MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES

Not applicable.

PART II

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Our common stock is traded on The NASDAQ Stock Market under the symbol “CTRN.” On March 31, 2025, there were 9 holders of record and approximately 3,400 beneficial holders of our common stock.

Dividends

In 2020, the Company announced it would suspend quarterly cash dividends. Any determination to declare and pay cash dividends in the future will be made by the Company’s board of directors.

Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers.

The number of shares of common stock repurchased by the Company during the fourth quarter of 2024 and the average price paid per share are as follows:

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Equity Compensation Plan Information.

See Item 12 of this Report.

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Stock Performance Graph

Set forth below is a line graph comparing the last five years’ percentage change in the cumulative total stockholder return on shares of our common stock against the cumulative total returns of the Russell 2000 Index and the Dow Jones US Specialty Retailers Index. This graph assumes that $100 was invested on January 31, 2020 in our common stock and in each of the market index and the industry indexes, and that all cash distributions were reinvested. Our common stock price performance shown on the graph is not indicative of future price performance.

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ITEM 6.RESERVED

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The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our audited consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. This discussion may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. As a result of many factors, such as those set forth under the section entitled “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this Report, our actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements.

Discussions of our results of operations for the year ended February 3, 2024 compared to the year ended January 28, 2023 that have been omitted under this item can be found in "Part II, Item 7 - Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended February 3, 2024, which was filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on April 18, 2024.

Executive Overview

We are a leading off-price value retailer of apparel, accessories and home trends primarily for African American families. Our high-quality and trend-right merchandise offerings at everyday low prices are designed to appeal to the fashion and trend preferences of value-conscious customers. As of February 1, 2025, we operated 591 stores in urban, suburban and rural markets in 33 states.

Fiscal 2024 Business Highlights

Fiscal 2024 Financial Highlights

Our Strategy

We believe that Citi Trends is in a unique position to serve our loyal customer base, with a long runway for store growth and a motivated leadership team supported by a healthy balance sheet. As described in more detail in “Item 1 – Business,” we have identified five strategic areas of focus that we believe will accelerate our sales and earnings growth over the next few years:

Offer Compelling Value Proposition. We believe that we can drive increases in traffic and basket by focusing on our three-tiered product strategy of opening prices, core value product and familiar brands at incredible values, all focused on the wants and needs of our African American customers. We believe that delivering newness and freshness results in high customer frequency. Our expanded offering of “treasures”, or extreme value product offerings, further strengthens this strategy and deepens our relationship with our customers.

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Focus on the African American Customer. We believe that a sharpened focus on our African American customers will drive improved sales through a more focused product assortment designed to address their fashion needs and wants, supporting their ability to express themselves through the creation of their own style. We believe that our refined understanding of our customer will drive increased traffic and conversion in our stores.

Consistent Operational Excellence. We believe that the work we are doing to develop fundamental retail practices and to ensure consistent execution will produce strong, sustainable financial results while positioning us for future, accelerated growth.

Growth. We believe that we can maximize the productivity of our existing 591 stores located in the heart of African American neighborhoods by executing on the three areas of focus stated above and by continued refinement of our store format. While we believe that maximizing the productivity of our existing fleet provides significant opportunity for sales and earnings growth, we continue to believe that Citi Trends has the potential to grow, and we expect to accelerate square footage expansion in the range of 6% to 10% annually over time.

People. We believe that our teams across the organization, led by Ken Seipel, our Chief Executive Officer, and their ability to consistently execute while staying focused on our African American customer, providing great product and a welcoming in-store environment, are a key differentiator for our business and are key to the continued transformation of our company.

We strongly believe that our business strategy centered around these five areas will accelerate our long-term sales and earnings growth.

Uncertainties and Challenges

General Economic Conditions

We expect that our operations in the short-term will continue to be influenced by general economic conditions, including on-going inflationary pressures, new tariff programs and changes in consumer sentiment. We continue to monitor the impacts on our business of unemployment levels, wage inflation, interest rates, inflation rates, housing costs, energy costs, consumer confidence, consumer perception of economic conditions, costs to source our merchandise and supply chain disruptions.

Seasonality and Weather Conditions

The nature of our business is seasonal. Historically, sales in the first and fourth quarters have been higher than sales achieved in the second and third quarters of the fiscal year. In addition, sales of clothing are directly impacted by the timing of the seasons to which the clothing relates. While we have expanded our product offerings to balance discretionary with non-discretionary products, traffic to our stores is still influenced by weather patterns to some extent.

Basis of Presentation

Net sales consist of store sales and layaway fees, net of returns by customers. Cost of sales consists of the cost of products we sell and associated freight costs. Depreciation is not considered a component of cost of sales and is included as a separate line item in the consolidated statements of operations. Selling, general and administrative expenses are comprised of store costs, including payroll and occupancy costs, corporate and distribution center costs and advertising costs. The years ended February 1, 2025, February 3, 2024 and January 28, 2023 are referred to herein as fiscal 2024, fiscal 2023 and fiscal 2022, respectively. Fiscal years 2024 and 2022 are each comprised of 52 weeks, while fiscal 2023 is comprised of 53 weeks.

Results of Operations

The following discussion of our financial performance is based on the consolidated financial statements set forth in Item 8 of this Report. The nature of our business is seasonal. Results may fluctuate due to changes in our business, consumer spending patterns, and the macroeconomic environment. Furthermore, the seasonal nature of our business may affect comparisons between periods.

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Net Sales and Additional Operating Data

The following table provides selected consolidated statement of operations data expressed both in dollars and as a percentage of net sales:

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The following table provides information about store activity and the change in comparable store sales for each fiscal year:

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Key Operating Statistics

We measure performance using key operating statistics. One of the main performance measures we use is comparable store sales growth. We define a comparable store as a store that has been open for at least 14 full consecutive months without closure for more than seven days within the same fiscal month. Remodeled and relocated stores are included in the comparable store sales results if the selling square footage is not changed significantly, the store is not closed for more than five days in any fiscal month and the store remains in the same trade area. We also use other operating statistics, most notably average sales per store, to measure our performance. As we typically occupy existing space in established shopping centers rather than sites built specifically for our stores, store square footage (and therefore sales per square foot) varies by store. We focus on overall store sales volume as the critical driver of profitability. In addition to sales, we measure cost of sales as a percentage of sales and store operating expenses, with a particular focus on labor, as a percentage of sales. These results translate into store level contribution, which we use to evaluate overall performance of each individual store. Finally, we monitor corporate and distribution center expenses against budgeted amounts.

Fiscal 2024 Compared to Fiscal 2023

Net Sales. Net sales increased $5.1 million, or 0.7%, to $753.1 million in fiscal 2024 from $747.9 million in fiscal 2023. The increase in sales was due to a 3.4% increase in comparable store sales, as well as a decrease of $9.1 million from net store opening and closing activity. The increase in comparable store sales was the result of increased traffic, basket and conversion, particularly in the second half of the year with the implementation of our refined strategies.

Cost of Sales (exclusive of depreciation). Cost of sales increased $8.2 million, or 1.8%, to $471.0 million in fiscal 2024 from $462.8 million in fiscal 2023. As a percentage of net sales, cost of sales deleveraged 60 basis points to 62.5% in fiscal 2024 from 61.9% in fiscal 2023 driven by higher markdowns from our large, strategic inventory reset in the second quarter and higher shrink expense, partially offset by lower freight costs as a result of reduced rates from a new carrier relationship.

Selling, General and Administrative (“SG&A”) Expenses. SG&A expenses increased $15.7 million, or 5.5%, to $300.2 million in fiscal 2024 from $284.5 million in fiscal 2023. The increase was primarily due to (1) $4.1 million of merit increases for store, DC and corporate roles; (2) $3.9 million of expenses related to CEO transition and shareholder defense; (3) $3.1 million of one-time investments, such as consulting fees and store and DC labor to process off-price deals to fuel our strategic initiatives and (4) $1.8 million of store repair and maintenance costs. As a percentage of sales, SG&A expenses deleveraged 190 basis points to 39.9% in fiscal 2024 from 38.0% in fiscal 2023, due to the aforementioned expense increases.

Depreciation. Depreciation expense decreased $0.2 million to $18.8 million in fiscal 2024 from $19.0 million in fiscal 2023.

Asset Impairment. Impairment charges for fiscal 2024 related to underperforming stores totaled $2.5 million, comprised of $1.2 million for leasehold improvements and fixtures and equipment, and $1.3 million for an operating lease right-of-use asset. Impairment charges for fiscal 2023 related to underperforming stores totaled $1.0 million, comprised of $0.9 million for leasehold improvements and fixtures and equipment, and $0.1 million for an operating right of use asset.

​Income Tax (Expense) Benefit. Income tax expense was $5.8 million in fiscal 2024 compared to income tax benefit of $3.9 million in fiscal 2023. The difference is attributable to the $16.5 million valuation allowance related to deferred tax assets, primarily associated with net operating loss carryforward generated in fiscal years 2023 and 2024. The cumulative losses during recent years represents sufficient negative evidence to require a valuation allowance, which will be maintained until sufficient positive evidence exists to support its reversal.

Net Loss. Net loss was $43.2 million in fiscal 2024 compared to net loss of $12.0 million in fiscal 2023, due to the factors discussed above.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Capital Allocation

Our capital allocation strategy is to maintain adequate liquidity to support current operations while investing in opportunities to profitably grow our business, then to return excess cash to shareholders through our share repurchase programs. Our year-end cash and cash equivalents balance was $61.1 million compared to $79.7 million at the end of last year. Until required for other purposes, we maintain cash and cash equivalents in deposit or money market accounts.

Our principal sources of liquidity consist of (i) cash and cash equivalents on hand; (ii) short-term trade credit arising from customary payment terms and trade practices with our vendors; (iii) cash generated from operations on an ongoing basis; and (iv) a revolving credit facility with a $75 million credit commitment.

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Inventory

Our year-end inventory balance was $122.6 million, compared with $130.4 million at the end of fiscal 2023. The decrease was the result of our large, strategic inventory reset which led to the markdown of aged product in the second quarter plus the impact of a faster supply chain and a focus on improved inventory productivity.

Capital Expenditures

Capital expenditures in fiscal 2024 were $12.1 million, a decrease of $2.8 million from the prior year, primarily due to opening fewer stores in fiscal 2024. We anticipate capital expenditures in fiscal 2025 in the range of $18 million to $22 million, primarily for opening up to 5 new stores and remodeling approximately 50 stores, combined with continued investments in our systems and distribution centers.

Share Repurchases

In fiscal 2024 we returned $3.8 million to shareholders through share repurchases. See Part II, Item 5 of this Report and Note 6 to the Financial Statements for more information.

Revolving Credit Facility

We have a revolving credit facility that matures in April 2030 and provides a $75 million credit commitment and a $25 million uncommitted “accordion” feature. Additional details of the credit facility are in Note 4 to the Financial Statements. At the end of fiscal 2024, we had no borrowings under the credit facility and $2.2 million in letters of credit outstanding.

Cash Flows

Cash Flows From Operating Activities. Cash used in operating activities was $3.8 million in fiscal 2024 compared with cash used of $9.6 million in fiscal 2023. For fiscal 2024, significant sources of cash included $7.8 million reduction in inventory and a $0.1 million increase in accounts payable. Significant uses of cash include a $49.5 million decrease in accrued expenses and other-long-term liabilities due primarily to payments of operating lease liabilities.

For fiscal 2023, significant sources of cash included $3.5 million from insurance proceeds related to operating activities and a $17.9 million increase in accounts payable. Significant uses of cash included (1) a $58.3 million decrease in accrued expenses and other-long-term liabilities due primarily to payments of operating lease liabilities; (2) a $24.6 million increase in inventory due primarily to depleted inventory levels at the end of the prior year; and (3) a $3.5 million increase in income tax receivable.

Cash Flows From Investing Activities. Cash used in investing activities was $10.1 million in fiscal 2024 compared to cash used of $13.4 million in fiscal 2023. Cash used in fiscal 2024 consisted entirely of purchases of property and equipment. Cash used in fiscal 2023 consisted of $14.9 million of purchases of property and equipment, partially offset by $1.5 million from insurance proceeds related to investing activities.

Cash Flows From Financing Activities. Cash used in financing activities was $4.7 million in fiscal 2024 compared with $0.9 million in fiscal 2023. Cash used in fiscal 2024 was $3.8 million for share repurchases and $0.9 million to settle withholding taxes on the vesting of restricted stock. Cash used in fiscal 2023 was to settle withholding taxes on the vesting of restricted stock.

Cash Requirements and Commitments

Our principal cash requirements consist of (1) inventory purchases; (2) capital expenditures to invest in our growth initiatives; and (3) operational needs, including salaries, occupancy costs, taxes and other operating costs. We have also historically used cash to repurchase stock under our stock repurchase programs. Historically, we have met these cash requirements using cash flow from operations and short-term trade credit. As of February 1, 2025, our contractual commitments for operating leases totaled $289.3 million (with $60.7 million due within 12 months) and our purchase obligations for open merchandise orders totaled $138.0 million due within 12 months. See Note 8 to the Financial Statements for more information regarding lease commitments.

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Critical Accounting Estimates

Our consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP, which requires us to make estimates and apply judgments that affect the reported amounts. Actual results could differ from those estimates. We believe the following critical accounting policies describe the more significant judgments and estimates used in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements.

Inventory

Inventory is stated at the lower of cost (first-in, first-out basis) or net realizable value as determined by the retail inventory method for store inventory and the average cost method for distribution center inventory. Under the retail inventory method, the cost of inventory is determined by calculating a cost-to-retail ratio and applying it to the retail value of inventory. Inherent in the retail inventory calculation are certain management judgments and estimates, including, among others, merchandise markups, markdowns and shrink, which impact the ending inventory valuation at cost as well as resulting cost of sales. Merchandise markdowns are reflected in the inventory valuation when the price of an item is lowered in the stores. We estimate and record an allowance for shrink for the period between the last physical count and the balance sheet date. The estimate of shrink can be affected by changes in actual shrink trends. Inventory shrink as a percentage of sales in fiscal 2024, fiscal 2023 and fiscal 2022 was 1.7%, 1.0% and 0.7%, respectively. The allowance for inventory shrink was $5.2 million as of February 1, 2025 and $3.9 million as of February 3, 2024. As a measure of sensitivity, a ten percent change in our estimated shrink as of February 1, 2025, would not have materially impacted our cost of goods sold in fiscal 2024. Many retailers have arrangements with vendors that provide for rebates and allowances under certain conditions, which ultimately affect the value of the inventory. We do not generally enter into such arrangements with our vendors. There were no material changes in the estimates or assumptions related to the valuation of inventory during fiscal 2024.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

In December 2023, the FASB issued ASU 2023-09, “Improvement to Income Tax Disclosures (Topic 740)”, which requires additional disclosures for income tax rate reconciliations, income taxes paid, and certain other tax disclosures. ASU 2023-09 is intended to enhance the transparency and decision usefulness of income tax disclosures. The amendments in ASU 2023-09 address investor requests for enhanced income tax information primarily through changes to the rate reconciliation and income taxes paid information. Adoption is required for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2024. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of this standard on its consolidated financial statements and related disclosures.

In November 2024, the FASB issued ASU 2024-03, “Expense Disaggregation Disclosures (Topic 220): Disaggregation of Income Statement Expenses” (“ASU 2024-03”), which requires public entities to disclose additional information that disaggregates certain expense captions into specified categories in the Notes to the consolidated financial statements. The new standard is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2026, and interim periods after December 15, 2027, with early adoption permitted. The disclosure updates are required to be applied prospectively with the option for retrospective application. The Company is currently evaluating the impact the amended guidance will have on its disclosures.

ITEM 7A.QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK

We source all of our products from markets in the United States in U.S. Dollars and, therefore, are not directly subject to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates. However, fluctuations in currency exchange rates could affect our purchasing power with vendors that import merchandise to sell to us. We have not entered into forward contracts to hedge against fluctuations in foreign currency prices.

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ITEM 8.FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA

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Citi Trends, Inc.

Index to Consolidated Financial Statements

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REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

To the Stockholders and the Board of Directors of Citi Trends, Inc.

Opinion on the Financial Statements

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Citi Trends, Inc. and subsidiary (the "Company") as of February 1, 2025 and February 3, 2024, the related consolidated statements of operations, cash flows, and stockholders’ equity, for each of the three years in the period ended February 1, 2025, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the "financial statements"). In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of February 1, 2025 and February 3, 2024, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended February 1, 2025, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

We have also audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of February 1, 2025, based on criteria established in Internal Control — Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission and our report dated April 16, 2025, expressed an unqualified opinion on the Company's internal control over financial reporting.

Basis for Opinion

These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company's financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

Critical Audit Matter

The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current-period audit of the financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that (1) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing a separate opinion on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which it relates.

Inventory – Retail Inventory Method – Refer to Note 2 to the consolidated financial statements

Critical Audit Matter Description

Inventory is stated at the lower of cost or net realizable value as determined by the retail inventory method for store inventory. Under the retail inventory method, the cost of inventory is determined by calculating a cost-to-retail ratio and applying it to the retail value of inventory. Inherent in the retail inventory calculation are certain management judgments and estimates, including, among others, merchandise markdowns, which impact the ending inventory valuation at cost as well as resulting cost of sales. Merchandise markdowns are reflected in the inventory valuation when the price of an item is lowered in the stores.

Given the valuation of inventory under the retail inventory method requires management to make judgments and estimates, performing audit procedures to evaluate the reasonableness of the judgments and estimates related to the timing of markdowns used in the valuation of inventory required an elevated degree of auditor judgment.

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How the Critical Audit Matter Was Addressed in the Audit

Our audit procedures to evaluate the reasonableness of the judgments and estimates related to the timing of markdowns used in the valuation of inventory included the following, among others:

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/s/ Deloitte & Touche LLP

Atlanta, Georgia

April 16, 2025

We have served as the Company's auditor since 2021.

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Citi Trends, Inc.

Consolidated Balance Sheets

(in thousands, except share data)

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See accompanying notes to consolidated financial statements.

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Citi Trends, Inc.

Consolidated Statements of Operations

(in thousands, except per share data)

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