On Wednesday, Vitamin Shoppe, Inc. (NYSE: VSI), announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2018, with both sales and earnings worse than results for the same period last year.

“I am pleased with the consistent and steady improvement in the business as the initiatives we have executed are beginning to take hold. We saw an improvement in underlying sales trends, an increase in both new customer acquisition and traffic while also realizing ongoing product margin improvement,” Colin Watts, the Chief Executive Officer of the Vitamin Shoppe, said in the statement on Wednesday.

According to the company, total net sales for the first quarter decreased from $305.8 million for the same period last year to $296.0 million. The company also reported diluted loss per share for the first quarter of $0.17 per share, compared with a profit of $0.35 per share for the same period last year. Adjusted earnings per share for the quarter was $0.10 per share, which was in line with analysts’ estimates.

For the full year 2018, the company expected its comparable sales of negative low to mid single digits, and gross margin rate to be in the range of 30.5% to 31.0%. Vitamin Shoppe also expected its capital expenditures to be around $30 million, which includes the opening of two new stores.

“The Company delivered solid cash flow generation in the quarter, partially benefitting from a reduction in capital expenditures as we have slowed new store openings. The cash flow generated in the quarter, coupled with our expectations for the remainder of the year, gave us the confidence to opportunistically purchase $45 million face value of our convertible debt due December 2020 at a discount to par value,” Brenda Galgano, the Chief Financial Officer of the company, commented today.