A Philadelphia star: Urban Outfitters reported record fourth-quarter sales.

Urban Outfitters Inc., the Philadelphia lifestyle specialty retailer, yesterday reported record fourth-quarter sales, bucking regional and national trends.

Glen T. Senk, chief executive officer, said the retailer achieved growth in all of its distinctly different brands - Urban Outfitters, Free People and Anthropologie.

Elsewhere in the region, Mothers Work Inc. and the Bon-Ton Stores Inc. said their sales declined because of a weakening national economy.

Urban Outfitters'

chief financial officer, John Kyees, gave some credit for the strong finish last year to the company's new headquarters, five century-old red-brick factory buildings that once served the old Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.

"The results are the product of people being energized by the environment," Kyees said of the space the firm has occupied since the fall of 2006. "The buildings bubble with ideas. We're dog-friendly, so people bring their pets to work and have a good time. It's a little like a college campus."

The biggest surge was in direct-to-customer online and catalog sales, which rose 39 percent during the quarter. The wholesale unit of its Free People brand increased sales 34 percent.

Urban Outfitters reports quarterly sales while others release figures monthly. It would not break out monthly figures, but it called its January numbers "exceptional," a harbinger of customer acceptance of its spring fashions.

Its sales for its fiscal fourth quarter ended Jan. 31 were a record $465 million, up 29 percent over the same period a year earlier.

This lifted total sales for the year to $1.5 billion from $1.2 billion a year earlier and $349 million in 2002.

Sales at stores that were open a year earlier, the key measure of retail health, were up 11 percent during the quarter. For the year ended Jan. 31, same-store sales were up 5 percent, compared with a 6 percent decline during the same period a year earlier.

The company opened 38 stores last year and plans 45 to 49 openings in 2008.

Erin Armendinger, managing director of the Jay H. Baker Retailing Initiative at the Wharton School, said the sales growth was helped by improved inventory controls and new logistics systems.

"I think they're definitely giving the consumer a different product," Armendinger said. "I would be hard-pressed to tell you exactly who their competitors are because I don't think they have very many.

"That's a great thing," she said. That lack of competition, Armendinger said, is a sign of market power.

The company's growth offers proof, Armendinger said, that even with fears of a recession, "consumers will still shop if you give them the right product at the right place."

Mothers Work,

the Philadelphia maternity retailer, said its January sales were down 5.2 percent to $38.7 million, compared with $40.8 million during the same month a year ago. The decline for stores open at least a year was even higher - 7.6 percent.

It attributed the declines to "a very difficult overall economic and retail environment." Also, it said, some currently popular fashions "can more readily fit a pregnant woman early in her pregnancy" than could previously popular styles.

Rebecca Matthias, president of the chain, said the popularity of these pregnancy-friendly fashions was diminishing and would be less of a negative factor "as we move into the spring selling season."

The chain's brands include Motherhood Maternity, A Pea in the Pod, Mimi Maternity and Destination Maternity.

Bon-Ton Stores,

of York, said same-store sales at its Bon-Ton and Carson's stores were off 1.3 percent during the four weeks ended Feb. 2, compared with the same period a year ago. Tony Buccina, vice chairman and president, said that customers had responded favorably to spring merchandise in late January and that the chain's inventories were down 4 percent on a comparable-store basis.

Charming Shoppes Inc.,

of Bensalem, a multibrand retailer with 2,453 stores in 48 states, did not report sales yesterday. Earlier this week, it had announced plans to close 150 money-losing stores and terminate 150, or 13 percent, of its management staff.

It also cut back plans for new stores in its Lane Bryant, Catherines, Plus Sizes, Fashion Bug and Petite Sophisticate chains.