Major Expansion Fuels Rebound For Apparel Firm Catering to Teens

0

Major Expansion Fuels Rebound For Apparel Firm Catering to Teens

Major Expansion Fuels Rebound For Apparel Firm Catering to Teens

By JENNIFER BELLANTONIO

Orange County Business Journal

Bucking the toughest market in a decade, apparel retailer Wet Seal Inc. plans to open 90 to 100 stores across its three divisions next year, as well as revamp some older stores and weed out unprofitable ones.

The Wet Seal division, which focuses on juniors, will see the biggest boost with at least 50 new stores, followed by Arden B, which carries contemporary women’s fashions, and Zutopia, a pre-teen retailer the company acquired last year from Gymboree Corp.

The expansion comes on the heels of Foothill Ranch-based Wet Seal reporting a 4.4 percent increase in same-store sales for the third quarter and a 70 percent gain in net income to $6.8 million vs. a year ago. November same-store sales came in at a 1.3 percent increase.

Kathy Bronstein, Wet Seal’s vice chairwoman and chief executive, has spent the past 18 months breathing new life into the retailer, which took a beating in 1999 when it unsuccessfully took a stab at khakis and polo shirts.

Liz Pierce, senior vice president of investment firm Wedbush Morgan Securities, credits Bronstein for “building an infrastructure for each division before she sets on a rapid expansion.”

Wet Seal had tried to use one merchandising team to run all of its properties: Limbo Lounge, the unisex, urban line that flopped, Arden B., and the Wet Seal and Contempo Casual lines for juniors. The result, said Pierce, was a diluted message that impacted the bottom line.

Bronstein conceded that the fashion business is not “smooth sailing” and requires constant fine-tuning, particularly in tight times.

No posts to display