(Filed Under wholesale Lingerie News). The former Intimacy retail chain, now operating under the Rigby and Peller name, has closed another store, dropping the number in the U.S. to nine.
Meanwhile, parent company Belgium-based Van de Velde reported sales in its first half rose slightly to 115.3 million euros from 113.9 million euros in the first half of 2016. Profit for the period declined to 20.0 million euros, from 21.2 million euros in the first half of last year.
Van de Velde owns the wholesale brands PrimaDonna, Marie Jo and Andres Sarda, as well as operating international chains of its own retail stores. It described its sales growth noting: “Wholesale turnover increased by 1.6%. Our PrimaDonna swimwear and the newly introduced PrimaDonna sportswear collections were particularly successful. Retail turnover increased by 3.0% on a like-for-like basis at constant exchange rates. Effect of exchange rate and store closures, resulted in a decline of turnover by 1.1%.”
The company added “Reported REBITDA [Recurring Earnings Before Interest Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization] for the first half year declined by 5.6%, from € 37.3m to € 35.2m. On a comparable basis (including comparable deliveries), consolidated REBITDA declined by 5.7%, from € 38.5m to € 36.3m. The main reasons for this decline were the following:
- Wholesale reported € 0.3m lower contribution to REBITDA and Retail reported € 0.1m higher contribution to REBITDA.
- Unallocated costs increased with € 2.0m, mainly through project costs to support the future growth: mainly in brand positioning, reliability and responsiveness of the end-to-end value chain, preparation for upgrading IT and eCommerce infrastructure as well as training and development of people and recruitment of specific talent and expertise.”
The number of Rigby & Peller stores in the U.S. peaked at near 20 some years ago under the Intimacy name. The count gradually shrank to 14 as of the fall of 2015, and then to 10 as of September, 2016, where the number stood earlier this spring. The name was changed to Rigby & Peller (Van de Velde had acquired a majority stake in that brand in 2011) in the fall of 2015.
In releasing its results for the first half, Van de Velde did not go into detail about its retail stores in the U.S., but last year at this time it had noted: “Retail activities in the USA continue to underperform and will decline in 2016 compared to 2015. As of September 2016, Rigby & Peller USA will put stronger focus on online sales besides the existing store network.”
Of the nine stores that remain, three are in Manhattan, one is in Atlanta, one is in Boston, two are in the Chicago area, one is in King of Prussia, and one is near Washington, DC. — NM
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