Abercrombie shutting struggling Ruehl chain - Wichita Business Journal:

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The New Albany-based apparel merchant said Wednesday it willshut Ruehl’e 29 stores and direct-to-consumer operationes and will be “substantially complete” with the efforft by the end of next The decision comes a month after Abercrombie (NYSE:ANF) took a deep strategixc look at the chain, whicnh targets young adults with clothes and Ruehl, whose only Ohio store is at Easton Town generated a pretax operating loss of $58 million last The chain regularly was Abercrombie’s weakest sales performetr at stores open at leasr a year. Ruehl’s same-store sales were off 33 percentrin May. Abercrombie earned $272.3 million on $3.54 billiomn in revenue last year.
“It has been a difficult decisionh toclose Ruehl, a bransd we continue to believe could have been successfuo in different circumstances,” CEO Michaeol Jeffries said in a statement. “However, givenb the current economic we believe it is in the best interests of the company to focus its efforts and resources on the growth opportunitiea afforded by ourother brands, particularly The company didn’t disclose the effect on the chain’s work nor did it indicate the number of jobs tied to Ruehl.
The revie w of Ruehl, which opened in cost the companyabou $51 million in impairment charges in its first Abercrombie expects to book about $65 million in pretax charges through the rest of the fiscal year as it windds down Ruehl. The company Wednesday also said it amende a credit agreement to excludesome Ruehl-related charges from requirementx under its covenant with the lender and reduced its availabl credit to $350 million from $450 Jeffries said the company is confident is has sufficient cash on hand but “wee believe it is prudent to make these in light of the recession-battere retail environment and the one-time Ruehl costs.
In additiobn to the 29 Ruehl stores, Abercrombie runs 350 flagshi p stores and 733 others undefthe Abercrombie, Hollister Co. and Gilly Hicks nameplates.