Talbots will close its stores for men and children

Venturing outside women’s clothing hasn’t worked for Talbots.

BOSTON (AP) — Talbots Inc. will close its 78 children’s and men’s apparel stores to focus on its core middle-aged female customer, a retrenchment that follows disappointing sales at Talbots as well as other specialty women’s apparel retailers amid tough economic conditions.

Friday’s announcement of the closures, affecting 800 employees, came as Talbots also warned that fiscal fourth-quarter sales have so far fallen below expectations at its 1,157 Talbots stores and the 271 J. Jill locations it acquired in a 2006 acquisition.

The warning, following two consecutive quarterly losses, spooked investors. Shares of Talbots fell $1.06, or nearly 10 percent, to $9.62 in midday trading, below the previous 52-week low of $10.55, set Thursday.

The stock lost about half its value last year, and the company announced a strategic review in October, leading to Friday’s announcement of plans to close its 66 Talbots Kids stores and 12 Talbots Mens stores by September.

The 61-year-old company opened its first children’s store in 1990, and its first men’s location in 2003, departing from the Hingham, Mass.-based company’s traditional focus on women. While the location of many of the children’s and men’s stores adjoining Talbot’s women’s apparel stores made it convenient for female shoppers to pick up clothing for others as well as themselves, the concept hasn’t been a good fit, said Betty Chen, a Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst.

“They really weren’t complementary to the overall focus of the company, which is 35-year-old -plus female customers,” Chen said. “The kids’ and men’s stores were either neutral or loss-making overall to the rest of the company.”

Talbots said its strategic review found the children’s and men’s stores did not “demonstrate the potential to deliver acceptable long-term return on investment.”

The closures “will greatly contribute to our ability to focus and reinvigorate our core brands and provide sustainable long-term shareholder value,” said Trudy Sullivan, who was named Talbots president and chief executive in June, replacing longtime Talbots CEO Arnold Zetcher, who retired.

The 800 job cuts to full- and part-time positions will affect about 5 percent of the company’s work force. Talbots, which posted $2.2 billion in sales last year, said the closures will reduce revenue by about $100 million per year and yield $13 million to $15 million in operational benefits.