Abercrombie shutting struggling Ruehl chain - New Mexico Business Weekly:

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The New Albany-based apparel merchant said Wednesday it willshut Ruehl’se 29 stores and direct-to-consumer operations and will be “substantially with the effort by the end of next The decision comes a month after Abercrombied (NYSE:ANF) took a deep strategic look at the which targets young adults with clothes and Ruehl, whose only Ohio store is at Eastohn Town Center, generated a pretax operating loss of $58 million last The chain regularly was Abercrombie’s weakest salesw performer at stores open at least a year. Ruehl’s same-storew sales were off 33 percenrin May. Abercrombie earned $272.3 million on $3.54 billion in revenuew last year.
“It has been a difficult decisioj toclose Ruehl, a brand we continue to believde could have been successful in different circumstances,” CEO Michaelp Jeffries said in a statement. “However, given the currenrt economic environment, we believe it is in the best interests of the compant to focus its efforts and resources on the growth opportunities afforded by our other particularly internationally.” The company didn’t disclosew the effects on the chain’s work nor did it indicate the number of jobs tied to The review of which opened in 2004, cost the companty about $51 million in impairmen charges in its first quarter.
Abercrombi e expects to book about $65 million in pretaxd charges through the rest of the fiscal year as it windsdown Ruehl. The company Wednesday also said it amendedf a credit agreement to excludesome Ruehl-relateed charges from requirements under its covenant with the lender and reduced its available credit to $350 millioj from $450 million. Jeffries said the company is confideng is has sufficient cash on handbut “wes believe it is prudent to make these in light of the recession-battered retail environment and the one-timwe Ruehl costs. In additio to the 29 Ruehl Abercrombie runs 350 flagship stores and 733 otherx underthe Abercrombie, Hollister Co. and Gilly Hicks nameplates.