Casual Male Closing Stores

Casual Male Retail Group Inc. (Canton, Mass.) will close up to 55 of its Levi's Outlet by Designs and Dockers Outlet by Designs stores over the next two years. To cover expenses related to those closures, the company will take a charge of between $27 million and $30 million in the fourth quarter of 2003.

Casual Male said it plans to focus on its remaining businesses, particularly its Casual Male Big & Tall operations. The company currently operates 467 Casual Male Big & Tall stores.

Dennis Hernreich, Casual Male Retail Group's cfo, said the closures “will have minimal impact upon CMRG's balance sheet, and not disturb CMRG's growth and profitability plans for its primary businesses.”

The company also said it has transferred the operations of its remaining seven Candie's outlet stores to Candie's Inc. (Valhalla, N.Y.). Candie's will assume operations of those locations for the next 12 to 18 months, after which it will either purchase the stores or close them.