Myer has seen its third quarter sales drop 3.3 per cent to $653 million while comparable store sales fell two per cent in the three months to April 29.

The department store retailer partly blamed severe wet weather linked to Cyclone Debbie for the fall in sales.

Total year to date (YTD) sales are down 1.3 per cent to $2,438 million and down 0.3 per cent on a comparable store basis.

Sales per square metre on a rolling 12 months basis were up 5.1 per cent compared to July 2015.

There was continued growth in online sales, up 36 per cent for the year to date.

Despite the faltering sales, Myer CEO and managing director Richard Umbers reiterated the company’s full-year guidance issued in March and said he was confident the long term benefits of a more productive network would outweigh the short term sales impact of store closures at Brookside and Orange at the start of the third quarter and Wollongong in October 2016.

“We have remained strongly focused on driving productivity, lifting efficiency and reducing our historic dependency on discounting all of which have impacted the result,” he said.

“Myer has delivered total and comparable store sales growth in five of the past seven quarters. While sales growth is integral to the new Myer journey, at this time we are focused on higher quality sales to maximize profitability.”

The Sass & Bide brand’s performance “was subdued” during the quarter, with $1.5 million of Myer’s shortfall in Q3 total sales being attributed to womenwear brand.

During the period, acquired the intellectual property and inventory of both Marcs and David Lawrence. “These are wanted brands being two of the most productive brands in our stores and we were delighted to secure their future,” said Umbers.

Myer said as part of a strategy to improve productivity across all assets, it will hand back approximately 50 per cent of the space at the Richlands Distribution Centre in Queensland to improve productivity of that centre.