Abercrombie shutting struggling Ruehl chain - Business Courier of Cincinnati:

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The New Albany-based apparel merchant said Wednesdag it willshut Ruehl’s 29 storesz and direct-to-consumer operations and will be “substantially complete” with the effortt by the end of next January. The decisionh comes a month afterAbercrombie (NYSE:ANF) took a deep strategic look at the which targets young adultd with clothes and accessories. Ruehl, whose only Ohio stor is at EastonTown Center, generated a pretacx operating loss of $58 million last The chain regularly was Abercrombie’s weakest salees performer at stores open at least a year. Ruehl’s same-store salex were off 33 percentin May. Abercrombie earned $272.3 million on $3.
54 billion in revenues last year. “It has been a difficultg decision toclose Ruehl, a brancd we continue to believe could have been successfuo in different circumstances,” CEO Michael Jeffries said in a statement. given the current economic we believe it is in the best interestas of the company to focus its efforts and resources on the growtg opportunities afforded by ourother brands, particularly The company didn’t disclose the effectsx on the chain’s work nor did it indicate the number of jobs tied to The review of Ruehl, which opened in cost the company about $51 million in impairment chargesx in its first quarter.
Abercrombie expects to book about $65 million in pretax charges through the rest of the fiscal year as it windsedown Ruehl. The company Wednesday also said it amende d a credit agreement to excludesome Ruehl-relater charges from requirements under its covenant with the lender and reducecd its available credit to $350 million from $450 Jeffries said the company is confideny is has sufficient cash on hand but “wed believe it is prudent to make these in light of the recession-battered retail environment and the one-timde Ruehl costs. In addition to the 29 Ruehl Abercrombie runs 350 flagship stores and 733 others underthe Abercrombie, Hollisterd Co.
and Gilly Hicks