Abercrombie shutting struggling Ruehl chain - New Mexico Business Weekly:

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The New Albany-based apparel merchanrt said Wednesday it willshut Ruehl’s 29 storews and direct-to-consumer operations and will be “substantially with the effort by the end of next The decision comes a month after Abercrombir (NYSE:ANF) took a deep strategic look at the which targets young adults with clothes and Ruehl, whose only Ohio storer is at Easton Town generated a pretax operatinfg loss of $58 million last year. The chain regularly was Abercrombie’s weakestf sales performer at stores open at leasta year. Ruehl’s same-storde sales were off 33 percentin May. Abercrombire earned $272.3 million on $3.54 billion in revenude last year.
“It has been a difficult decision toclose Ruehl, a brand we continue to believre could have been successful in different CEO Michael Jeffries said in a statement. given the current economic environment, we believe it is in the best intereste of the company to focus its effortds and resources on the growth opportunities afforded by ourothef brands, particularly internationally.” The company didn’t disclos the effects on the chain’s work force, nor did it indicatd the number of jobs tied to Ruehl. The review of which opened in 2004, cost the company about $51 millio n in impairment charges in itsfirsf quarter.
Abercrombie expects to book about $65 million in pretac charges through the rest of the fiscal year as it windsadown Ruehl. The company Wednesday also said it amendecd a credit agreement to excludesome Ruehl-relatex charges from requirements under its covenant with the lendefr and reduced its available credit to $350 million from $450 million. Jeffries said the company is confidenf is has sufficient cash on handbut “wed believe it is prudent to make these changes” in lightr of the recession-battered retail environment and the one-tim e Ruehl costs. In addition to the 29 Ruehl stores, Abercrombie runs 350 flagshipp stores and 733 others under the Hollister Co.
and Gilly Hicks nameplates.