Ralph Lauren to Close Flagship New York Store

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.
Ralph Lauren to Close Flagship New York Store

© Thinkstock

[cnxvideo id=”508883″ placement=”ros”]Clothing company Ralph Lauren Corp. (NYSE: RL) will shutter its flagship store on New York’s Fifth Avenue and take steps to lower costs. The company has struggled with revenue and same-store sales recently. Ralph Lauren said it would boost its e-commerce efforts as well.

Ralph Lauren reported that it would alter its Way Forward Plan “to return the company to sustainable, profitable growth and continue to move its business and iconic brand forward.” The plan is a longer term initiative to improve corporate performance.

The flagship store is located at 711 Fifth Avenue. The company will consolidate this location with the company’s Ralph Lauren Men’s and Women’s flagship stores on Madison Avenue. Additionally, some of the sales effort of the flagship will be moved further downtown in Manhattan.

The company also said there may be future “reviews of store footprints” and indicated that more stores may be closed.

[nativounit]

Ralph Lauren has stated as well that it will enter a partnership with sales software firm SalesForce’s Commerce Cloud. This move is expected to deliver “more consistent customer experience across the global digital ecosystem …”

The company said the current restructuring will save $140 million per year. This is in addition to another $180 million to $220 million in savings that it announced last June 7. Total restructuring charges against earnings are expected to be $370 million.

On February 2, Ralph Lauren announced fourth-quarter earnings for the period that ended December 31. Revenue fell to $1.71 billion from $1.9 billion in the same quarter the year before. For the period, net income was $82 million, down from $131 million in the year-ago period. As it announced earnings, the company also said Stefan Larsson, president and chief executive officer, would leave, effective May 1.

[wallst_email_signup]

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

Featured Reads

Our top personal finance-related articles today. Your wallet will thank you later.

Continue Reading

Top Gaining Stocks

DVA Vol: 1,583,788
AMD
AMD Vol: 56,825,474
DOC Vol: 13,335,311
SMCI Vol: 67,263,181

Top Losing Stocks

CDW
CDW Vol: 3,034,972
TECH Vol: 3,338,815
ANET Vol: 17,235,377
COR Vol: 3,384,252
SWKS Vol: 4,390,048