The company also cut its operating loss, to $24.5 million for the year, down from a $49.3 million loss in the previous year, although non-cash charges were a big chunk of the 2017 loss.
The execution of the fye chain's expansion into licensed products has improved, as the company picked up 2% of gross margin in Q4, which the company said was due to fewer markdowns than in the year ago period.
Overall results for Trans World were pretty rough, as etailz, the company's latest acquisition, hit a rough patch that pulled the overall Trans World loss to $65.2 million for the quarter and $96.9 million for the year, up from a $32.5 million loss for the quarter and a $42.6 million loss for the year in the fiscal 2017 periods.
Trans World is taking steps to stanch the bleeding at etailz, cutting staff 30% and making senior management changes in Q4.
Trans World management continues to emphasize the fye pivot to merch (which includes at least some games) as a way to offset losses in fye's core packaged media categories. "In the fye segment, unique merchandise and experiences associated with the tremendous amount of entertainment and pop-culture content being created is our opportunity," Trans World CEO Michnael Feurer said in the conference call. "The efforts to change our merchandise point of view based on unique, relevant collaborative and exclusive merchandise has been well received by our customers and will drive the continued reinvention of the fye brand throughout 2019."
