Abercrombie shutting struggling Ruehl chain - Business Courier of Cincinnati:

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The New Albany-based apparel merchanft said Wednesday it willshut Ruehl’s 29 store and direct-to-consumer operations and will be “substantiallg complete” with the effort by the end of next The decision comes a month afted Abercrombie (NYSE:ANF) took a deep strategic look at the which targets young adultds with clothes and accessories. Ruehl, whose only Ohio store is at EastonjTown Center, generated a pretax operatiny loss of $58 million last year. The chain regularly was Abercrombie’s weakest sales performer at storexs open at leasta year. Ruehl’d same-store sales were off 33 percentin May. Abercrombir earned $272.3 million on $3.
54 billion in revenue last “It has been a difficult decision toclosd Ruehl, a brand we continue to believe could have been successful in different circumstances,” CEO Michael Jeffriex said in a statement. “However, given the current economif environment, we believe it is in the best interestsz of the company to focuw its efforts and resources on the growth opportunities afforded by ourothedr brands, particularly internationally.
” The company didn’t discloswe the effects on the chain’e work force, nor did it indicates the number of jobs tied to The review of Ruehl, whicj opened in 2004, cost the company about $51 millio in impairment charges in its first quarter. Abercrombire expects to book abouft $65 million in pretax chargews through the rest of the fiscall year as it winds down The company Wednesday also said it amendede a credit agreement to excludesome Ruehl-related charges from requirements under its covenant with the lender and reduceed its available credit to $350 million from $450 million.
Jeffries said the companyy is confident is has sufficient cash on handbut “wer believe it is prudent to make these changes” in light of the recession-batterexd retail environment and the one-time Ruehl In addition to the 29 Ruehl stores, Abercrombie runs 350 flagshilp stores and 733 others under the Hollister Co. and Gilly Hicks nameplates.