First Quarter Fiscal 2010:

       
(in millions, except per share amounts) Earnings
before Diluted
income Income Net earnings
taxes taxes earnings per share
Reported GAAP Basis $ 36.5 $ 14.8 $ 21.7 $ 0.33
Adjustments to SG&A expenses:
Merger related costs 1.6 0.1 1.5 0.02
Impairment of trade name 2.0 0.8 1.2 0.02

Charges related to deferred compensation plan

0.9 0.3 0.6 0.01
Non-GAAP basis $ 41.0 $ 16.0 $ 25.0 $ 0.38
 

First Quarter Fiscal 2009:

 
(in millions, except per share amounts) Earnings
before Diluted
income Income Net earnings
taxes taxes earnings per share
Reported GAAP Basis $ 32.3 $ 12.6 $ 19.7 $ 0.30
Adjustments to SG&A expenses:

Benefit related to deferred compensation plan

(1.6 ) (0.6

)

(1.0 ) (0.01 )
Non-GAAP basis $ 30.7 $ 12.0 $ 18.7 $ 0.29
 

Increases Fiscal July 2010 Earnings Guidance

Given the Company’s better than expected first quarter results, the Company increased its guidance for earnings per diluted share for the fiscal year ending July, 2010 to a range of $1.20 to $1.30. This guidance includes an impact of approximately $0.05 to earnings per diluted share as a result of a 53rd week of operations in fiscal 2010, offset by the same amount of impact related to the adoption of ASC 470-20. This guidance is based solely on dressbarn and maurices estimated results. The Company expects to update this guidance after the completion of the Tween Brands merger. This estimate is also based upon various assumptions for the year including a low single digit increase in comparable store sales.

Conference Call Information

The Company will conduct a conference call today, November 19, 2009 at 4:30 PM Eastern Time to review its first quarter results followed by a question and answer session. Parties interested in participating in this call should dial in at (617) 614-3518 prior to the start time, the passcode is 40606328. The call will also be simultaneously broadcast at www.dressbarn.com. A recording of the call will be available shortly after its conclusion and until December 19, 2009 by dialing (617) 801-6888, the passcode is 90693356.

ABOUT DRESS BARN, INC.

Dress Barn, Inc. (NASDAQ - DBRN), is a leading national specialty apparel retailer offering quality career and casual fashion apparel through its dressbarn and maurices brands. As of October 24, 2009, the Company operated 846 dressbarn stores in 47 states and 734 maurices stores in 44 states. For more information, please visit www.dressbarn.com and www.maurices.com.

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