The Limited marks 50 years

By Tim Feran

Columbus Dispatch

COLUMBUS

It was 50 years ago that an ambitious young Ohio State University graduate borrowed $5,000 from his aunt and another $5,000 from a bank to open a store at the Kingsdale Shopping Center in Upper Arlington. That ambitious young man, Leslie H. Wexner, decided to call the store The Limited, because he intentionally limited its appeal to women.

With its opening, Wexner created the concept of specialty retailing, helped fuel the growth of shopping malls and founded a retail empire that continues to thrive to this day.

To mark its half-century of business, The Limited is kicking off a four-month celebration in which the chain will be “reconnecting with the customer, reinforcing the brand,” said Tawn Earnest, director of public relations and events at The Limited. “We’re celebrating the client as star.”

The Limited is now a privately-owned company separate from Wexner’s L Brands, the temporary name of Limited Brands, parent of Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works.

Even so, “it’s pretty amazing, what The Limited has been throughout the years, its impact on the retail environment, how it defined specialty retailers and made specialty retailers what they are today,” said Nicolas Frechette, the chain’s senior vice president of merchandising.

Since private equity group Sun Capital took full ownership in 2010, The Limited has added 68 stores, bringing the total count to 259. Though the growth has been good, it is a considerable drop from the chain’s peak of 750 at the end of the ’80s.

“I think the [chain] currently is at a perfect size to really re-establish itself in the market, to become a huge part of the retail market again,” Frechette said. “It’s smaller now and can really be re-established to that woman by offering a collection of wear-to-work product, clothes that are fashionable but easy to wear.

“What it was then, it still is now,” Frechette said. “It’s always been about bringing high fashion to the American woman at affordable prices.”

That strategy is “on trend,” said Marcie Merriman, founder of PrimalGrowth, a retail and brand strategy firm.

When recently departed CEO Linda Heasley was running the company, “she was always emphasizing that The Limited should be the store that the customer would go to for that first suit, that first interview suit,” Merriman said. “And I thought, ‘Who is wearing suits anymore?’ But more and more, you’re seeing that in the workplace.”

While officials at The Limited are hoping to include Wexner in the celebration, as of this writing, no firm plans had been made.