After a rocky first quarter, Charming Shoppes finally found a permanent replacement for Dorrit Bern, who was ousted in July 2008. James Fogarty is the charming new leader of Charming, and he's being touted as a "turnaround specialist."
Fogarty comes straight from his stint as the president and CEO of Lehman Brothers Holdings, which filed for Chapter 11 protection on September 15, 2008. This kind of "turnaround" experience raises questions about whether Charming Shoppes will soon join the 2009 Retail Chapter 11 List.
The company, which operates more than 2,300 stores including Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug, Catherines, and Petite Sophisticate, announced in the first quarter that it was shutting down its Figure Magazine and shoetrader.com businesses to cut costs after a Q4 same store sales decrease of 15%. The company had already announced 225 job cuts and discontinued its Lane Bryant Woman catalog in January to save money.
Charming Shoppes will add 100 stores to the 2009 retail store closings tally, although the company hasn't specified which locations or which brands will shutter. Charming has not released monthly same store sales figures in 2009, but announced that it expects a double-digit decline in same store sales in its fiscal first quarter.
Fogarty comes straight from his stint as the president and CEO of Lehman Brothers Holdings, which filed for Chapter 11 protection on September 15, 2008. This kind of "turnaround" experience raises questions about whether Charming Shoppes will soon join the 2009 Retail Chapter 11 List.
The company, which operates more than 2,300 stores including Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug, Catherines, and Petite Sophisticate, announced in the first quarter that it was shutting down its Figure Magazine and shoetrader.com businesses to cut costs after a Q4 same store sales decrease of 15%. The company had already announced 225 job cuts and discontinued its Lane Bryant Woman catalog in January to save money.
Charming Shoppes will add 100 stores to the 2009 retail store closings tally, although the company hasn't specified which locations or which brands will shutter. Charming has not released monthly same store sales figures in 2009, but announced that it expects a double-digit decline in same store sales in its fiscal first quarter.