Kids wear retailer Children’s Place plans to close 300 of its shops in malls by the end of 2021. The retailer’s mall-based portfolio will account for less than 25 per cent of its total revenue. By the end of second quarter of this year, the company plans to close 100 outlets followed by another 100 stores in 2021. About half of the first set of closures will be affected in the next two months with most of these stores likely to be liquidated soon.
These closures are a result of the company’s continuous decline in sales. Sale in the first quarter declined 38 per cent. It swung from $4.5 million in net profits a year earlier to a $114.8 million loss. That was a 990-point base downswing to 26.8 per cent of net sales, largely due to higher e-commerce fulfillment costs, along with closed-store fixed expenses.
