The Limited Closing All 250 Stores
It's official: Women's apparel chain The Limited on Sunday began closing all 250 of its stores across the United States and is cutting 4,000 jobs — the latest casualty of shopping's move online and the growth of fast-fashion chains. A message on The Limited's website said the retailer would continue to sell items online. However, it's not clear how much longer that will last: In December, as we reported, the company started cutting jobs and was facing a possible permanent shutdown. And on Friday, the owner of Limited Stores, private equity firm Sun Capital Partners, said it was writing down the remaining equity value of Limited Stores to zero.
Total Retail's Take: Once a popular brand known for small stores selling a limited assortment of women's clothing, Limited Stores, founded in 1963 in Columbus, Ohio, fell on hard times in the last decade. The chain was spun off from Victoria's Secret parent L Brands in 2007 in a leveraged buyout by Sun Capital. In 2010, L Brands, known as Limited Brands until 2013, sold its remaining 25 percent stake to Sun Capital for roughly $32 million. The Limited's disappearance will likely add pressure to mall operators such as Simon Property Group and General Growth Properties, which are grappling with the bankruptcy in the last two years of mall stalwarts like Aéropostale, Pacific Sun, American Apparel and Wet Seal. What's more, mall anchors Macy's and Sears are closing hundreds of stores amid large sales declines.
