Ralph Lauren Cleans House

Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. (New York) appears to be heading back to its roots by closing its Polo Jeans Co. stores and some Club Monaco stores to focus on higher-end retail.

Closing the 12 Polo Jeans stores and 11 poorly performing Club Monaco stores is expected to help the company compete, once again, in the upscale retail business. Josie Esquivel, of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. explained Ralph Lauren's “original retail stores were more high-end than they are now.”

Polo Ralph Lauren will take a restructuring charge of between $110 and $115 million for the fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30, 2000. But the company expects to report second quarter earnings on November 8 that are in line with estimates.