Open and Shut at Nine West Group

Jones Apparel Group (Bristol, Pa.), whose Nine West Group subsidiary designs and sells women's shoes (Easy Spirit, Enzo Angiolini, Bandolino), has announced it will close 30-40 of its underperforming stores this year.

It will, however, open 15-20 new stores in 2002, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company operated 944 Nine West, Easy Spirit and Enzo Angiolini stores last year, and revenue from those stores fell 24 percent in the fourth quarter.

Jones Apparel also manufactures apparel under such brands as Jones New York, Evan-Picone, Rena Rowan and Todd Oldham. It also has an exclusive license with Polo to make and sell Polo Ralph Lauren products in Canada, Mexico and the U.S.

Last week, it bought the Gloria Vanderbilt Apparel Co. (Edison, N.J.) and the Vanderbilt brand name for $138 million — $80 million in cash, $20 million in stock and the assumption of about $38 million in debt. Gloria Vanderbilt designs and distributes stretch and twill jeans for women which are sold by Kohl's, J.C. Penney, Mervyns, Costco and Federated Department Stores, among others.