Whew, it is rough out there, guys. According to Fortune, True Religion filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, making it “the 23rd retailer or consumer-oriented company to do so this calendar year,” and according to USA Today, Abercrombie has dropped its search for a buyer, driving its “stock down 14.5%”.
2017 has been a noteworthy year for literally all the wrong reasons when it comes to the retail sector (see yesterday’s post on the RetailDive report that profiled 10 big names with C-grade bond ratings — a list which included J. Crew, Neiman Marcus and Eddie Bauer, among others – for more on that), and mall brands like True Religion and Abercrombie have been hit with particular ferocity.
Not even Russel Westbrook’s guest spot as True Religion’s creative director / campaign face could turn things around, smh.
True Religion’s restructuring deal “will allow [the company] to keep stores open even as it focuses on building up its e-commerce,” according to the Fortune story, while Abercrombie is essentially trying a little bit of everything at their namesake stores as they cling to the coattails of incremental quarterly gains made by Hollister.
And, as Fortune said, “the bloodbath won’t end soon: this winter, a report by Moody’s Investors Service found that debt maturities were on their way to record levels in the next five years.”
