Ulta Beauty on Thursday laid out plans to boost sales and gain market share after a first-quarter sales slowdown. Comparable sales, a metric that tracks Ulta stores open at least 14 months along with online sales, increased 1.6% year over year, a stark slowdown from the same period a year earlier when Ulta reported comparable sales growth of 9.3% “We expect growth to accelerate in the second half of the year, to be between 2% and 4% reflecting the impact of our sales-driving initiatives,” finance chief Paula Oyibo said during the company’s earnings call. Ulta CEO Dave Kimbell in April warned of cooling demand in the beauty category at an investor conference. And while the slowdown was largely anticipated, Kimbell said it hit the company “a bit earlier and bit bigger” than expected. Kimbell on Thursday acknowledged market share has been challenged in the past quarters, particularly within the prestige beauty category. “We…
