Casual Male Says Good-Bye to Jared M.

The Casual Male Retail Group Inc. (Canton, Mass.) has announced it will discontinue the custom menswear manufacturing Jared M. business, which it bought last year, either selling the operation off or shutting it down.

“We have determined that the amount of resources required to make that scale of the business is not aligned with our strategic growth plans,” said president and ceo David Levin. “We acquired Jared M. . . . as an opportunity to build a high-end custom business. Jared M. required its own infrastructure and took [our] management group from its core competency of operating retail concepts into trying to operate a custom manufacturing business.”

Levin said the company will expand its Casual Male and Rochester brands into the European market, including selling in six countries on the Internet next year with plans for further expansion beyond 2008.

“We’re optimistic about the opportunity based on the success of our London-based Rochester store,” Levin said. “It’s the second-highest-volume store in the company and continues to be one of our best comp stores year in and year out, and currently there is nothing in Europe that offers the marketplace the strength of brands and assortments that we carry today.”

The company posted a loss of $3.8 million for its third quarter ended Nov. 3, 2007. Sales dropped slightly and same-store sales fell 1.1 percent. Sales at the company’s retail stores were down 4.8 percent. Levin said the poor results came after 15 consecutive quarters of comp increases. “We strongly believe that the unseasonably warm weather, especially in October, was the significant factor in the slowdown,” he said. He also insisted the company’s stores are “on solid ground” and shoppers are responding to the newest private-label lifestyle brand, Oak Hill, as well as the more-established Harbor Bay. He said the young men’s label, 626 Blue, is also experiencing growth.