Jones Group to Close 170 Stores

The Jones Group Inc. (New York) has announced it will close about 170 underperforming domestic outlets by mid-2014 and cut its domestic retail staff by about 18 percent, or roughly 750 people.

“We believe these actions will position the company for maximum operating leverage and improved profitability as our businesses recover and grow,” said ceo Wesley Card, according to Women’s Wear Daily.

After the closings, Card said, the company will end up with 380 Nine West stores and 45 Stuart Weitzman units, plus outlets for such Jones Group labels as Jones New York, Nine West and Easy Spirit.

It appears that the experiment with several new Nine West concepts, such as Nine West’s Vintage America Collection boutique, will be halted. Nor will The World According to Pumps concept be rolled out. 

“What we’ll end up with is a chain of Nine West stores that really showcase the brand and help overall with brand management,” Card told WWD. “There will be more of the traditional Nine West stores. We experimented with some of those, but we believe if we have really polished, great Nine West stores in every major city, we can support the Nine West brand image better that way.”