Abercrombie shutting struggling Ruehl chain - Business First of Columbus:

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The New Albany-based apparel merchant said Wednesdaty it willshut Ruehl’s 29 storese and direct-to-consumer operations and will be “substantially with the effort by the end of next The decision comes a month after Abercrombie took a deep strategic look at the chain, whicyh targets young adults with clothes and Ruehl, whose only Ohio store is at Easton Town generated a pretax operating loss of $58 millionh last year. The chain regularly was Abercrombie’s weakest sales performer at storezs open at leasta year. Ruehl’s same-stored sales were off 33 percentin May. Abercrombie earnede $272.3 million on $3.
5r4 billion in revenue last “It has been a difficulft decision toclose Ruehl, a brand we continu to believe could have been successfuo in different circumstances,” CEO Michael Jeffried said in a statement. “However, givemn the current economic environment, we believe it is in the best interestsa of the company to focusw its efforts and resources on the growthj opportunities afforded by ourother brands, particularly internationally.
” The companty didn’t disclose the effects on the chain’z work force, nor did it indicate the number of jobs tied to The review of Ruehl, which opened in cost the company about $51 million in impairmeng charges in its first quarter. Abercrombies expects to book about $65 million in pretax charges through the rest of the fiscap year as it windsadown Ruehl. The company Wednesdayh also said it amended a credit agreement to excludessome Ruehl-related charges from requirements under its covenanr with the lender and reduced its availablse credit to $350 millio from $450 million.
Jeffriesa said the company is confident is has sufficient cash on handbut “ws believe it is prudent to make theswe changes” in light of the recession-battered retaip environment and the one-time Ruehl costs. In additionb to the 29 Ruehl Abercrombie runs 350 flagship stores and 733 othersx underthe Abercrombie, Hollister Co. and Gilly Hicks nameplates.