Cherokee Has 2nd-Quarter Loss of $1.43 Million

Cherokee Inc., a Sunland-based apparel maker, reported a fiscal second-quarter loss of $1.43 million, compared with a year-earlier loss of $1.21 million.

The loss in the quarter that ended Nov. 30 mainly stemmed from interest costs on Cherokee’s debt--which totals more than $160 million--and it came on an 18% drop in the company’s sales, to $43.5 million from $53.3 million a year earlier.

But excluding the interest, Cherokee’s pretax earnings from operations fell 21% in the quarter, to $4.2 million from $5.3 million. The drop reflected “the very poor retail climate which existed during 1991,” Cherokee Co-Chairman Robert Margolis said in a statement.

For the first half of its fiscal year, Cherokee lost $1.36 million compared with a year-earlier loss of $1.32 million, and its six-month sales fell 16%, to $97.4 million from $115.8 million.