With respect to the wholesale business of the fourth quarter, our wholesale sales order book which includes both our US and international orders, was up 7% as of September 30th, 2009 as compared to September 30th, 2008.Turning to our consumer direct business, our third quarter net sales increase was driven by the increase in our store count on a year over year basis. We added 30 new stores on a year over year basis ending the third quarter with 66 stores. This is comprised of 50 full pricewholesale true religion stores and 16 outlets. In October we opened one additional retail store and we plan to open three additional retail stores in the balance of the fourth quarter for a total of 70 branded retail stores at year end.
We’re also on track to open awholesale true religion full price store in London in 2010. As previously mentioned, we established a legal entity in the UK during the second quarter to prepare for our retail expansion within this market.
On a consolidated basis our stores performed in line with our expectations during the third quarter and are on track to deliver sales growth of 60%-65% over 2009. Gross margins in the consumer direct segment were 74.6% compared to 77.9% in the prior year period. The decline in gross margin was due to an increase in the percentage of consumer direct sales from our outlets as well as the merchandise mix shift within the outlets as they now have fewer higher margin irregulars in their assortment.
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