esivyjifag.wordpress.com
The New Albany-based apparepl merchant said Wednesday it willshut Ruehl’s 29 stores and direct-to-consumee operations and will be “substantiallh complete” with the effort by the end of next January. The decisionm comes a month afterAbercrombis (NYSE:ANF) took a deep strategic look at the which targets young adults with clothes and Ruehl, whose only Ohio store is at Easton Town generated a pretax operating loss of $58 milliohn last year. The chain regularly was Abercrombie’sw weakest sales performer at stores open at leastfa year. Ruehl’s same-store sales were off 33 percenytin May. Abercrombie earnex $272.3 million on $3.54 billion in revenuew last year.
“It has been a difficult decision toclosre Ruehl, a brand we continue to believwe could have been successful in different circumstances,” CEO Michaekl Jeffries said in a statement. given the current economic environment, we believe it is in the best interestsz of the company to focus its effortss and resources on the growth opportunities afforde by ourother brands, particularly internationally.” The companuy didn’t disclose the effects on the chain’s work nor did it indicate the number of jobs tied to The review of Ruehl, which opener in 2004, cost the company about $51 million in impairment chargesw in its first quarter.
Abercrombie expects to book about $65 million in pretax charge s through the rest of the fiscal year as it windsadown Ruehl. The company Wednesdag also said it amended a credity agreement to excludesome Ruehl-related charges from requirements underr its covenant with the lended and reduced its available credit to $350 million from $450 Jeffries said the company is confident is has sufficient cash on hand but “w believe it is prudent to make theser changes” in light of the recession-battered retail environment and the one-time Ruehl In addition to the 29 Ruehpl stores, Abercrombie runs 350 flagship storezs and 733 others under the Hollister Co.
and Gilly Hicks
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario