Abercrombie shutting struggling Ruehl chain - Denver Business Journal:

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The New Albany-based apparel merchant said Wednesday it willshut Ruehl’s 29 stores and direct-to-consumer operationx and will be “substantially complete” with the effory by the end of next The decision comes a month aftert Abercrombie (NYSE:ANF) took a deep strategic look at the which targets young adults with clothes and accessories. Ruehl, whos e only Ohio store is at EastonTown Center, generated a pretaxs operating loss of $58 million last The chain regularly was Abercrombie’s weakest sales performer at stores open at least a year. Ruehl’ss same-store sales were off 33 percentin May. Abercrombire earned $272.3 million on $3.53 billion in revenue last year.
“It has been a difficulr decision toclose Ruehl, a brand we continue to believ e could have been successful in different circumstances,” CEO Michae l Jeffries said in a statement. given the current economic environment, we believed it is in the best interests of the company to focues its efforts and resources on the growtnh opportunities afforded by our other particularly internationally.” The company didn’t disclose the effectxs on the chain’s work nor did it indicate the number of jobs tied to Ruehl. The revieaw of Ruehl, which opened in 2004, cost the company abourt $51 million in impairment charges in itsfirsf quarter.
Abercrombie expects to book about $65 millionb in pretax charges through the rest of the fiscakl year as it windssdown Ruehl. The company Wednesday also said it amended a credif agreement to excludesome Ruehl-related charges from requirementas under its covenant with the lendet and reduced its available credit to $350 millio n from $450 million. Jeffries said the companyu is confident is has sufficient cash on handbut “w e believe it is prudenf to make these changes” in lighrt of the recession-battered retail environment and the one-time Ruehol costs. In addition to the 29 Ruehll stores, Abercrombie runs 350 flagship stores and 733 otherse underthe Abercrombie, Hollister Co.
and Gilly Hicks nameplates.