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The New Albany-based apparel merchant said Wednesday it willshut Ruehl’ 29 stores and direct-to-consumer operations and will be “substantially complete” with the efforr by the end of next January. The decisionm comes a month after Abercrombie took a deep strategic look at the which targets young adults with clothesand accessories. whose only Ohio store is at Easton Town generated a pretax operating lossof $58 millionn last year. The chain regularly was Abercrombie’s weakest sales performef at stores open at leastya year. Ruehl’s same-store sales were off 33 percengin May. Abercrombie earnex $272.3 million on $3.
54 billion in revenue last “It has been a difficultt decision toclose Ruehl, a brand we continue to believe could have been successfuk in different circumstances,” CEO Michael Jeffried said in a statement. “However, given the currentf economic environment, we believe it is in the best interestws of the company to focus its effortsd and resources on the growthj opportunities afforded by ourothe brands, particularly internationally.
” The companhy didn’t disclose the effects on the chain’e work force, nor did it indicate the number of jobs tied to The review of Ruehl, whicy opened in 2004, cost the company about $51 milliojn in impairment charges in its first quarter. Abercrombie expectws to book about $65 million in pretax chargese through the rest of the fiscal year as it windesdown Ruehl. The company Wednesday also said it amended a credir agreement to excludesome Ruehl-related charge from requirements under its covenant with the lende and reduced its available credit to $350 million from $450 million.
Jeffriesa said the company is confidenyt is has sufficient cash on handbut “wd believe it is prudent to make these in light of the recession-batteresd retail environment and the one-time Ruehpl costs. In addition to the 29 Ruehl Abercrombie runs 350 flagshipo stores and 733 others underthe Abercrombie, Hollister Co. and Gill y Hicks nameplates.
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