Hilfiger Closes All Los Angeles Stores

Tommy Hilfiger closed the last of his three retail stores in the Los Angeles area on March 31, leaving the New York–based sportswear designer without a signature retail presence in Southern California.

The glitzy 8,500-square-foot Tommy Hilfiger store at the Hollywood & Highland shopping center was the final shop to shutter its doors. The Hilfiger stores, located on the 1400 block of Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade and at Beverly Center, both quietly closed in early March, according to representatives of the different shopping centers where the Hilfiger retail sites were located.

Representatives of the label were unavailable for comment on the shutterings, which follows the company closing its 18,000-square-foot Rodeo Drive store in 2001. The March 2004 store closings occurred during an important shift for Hilfiger, said Jeffrey Van Sinderen, an analyst with Los Angeles–based B-Riley & Co. The company is in the midst of the debut of its highly anticipated H Hilfiger collection.

“They need to do something different, something that did not say ’Tommy,” Van Sinderen said. “They alienated their core customer base more than five years ago when they made a transition to the urban market. It worked for a short time, but it destroyed the credibility of the core business’ preppy appeal. Ever since then, they have been trying to recover and rebuild. It’s been a hard road.”

According to Hilfiger’s results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2004, ended Dec. 31, 2003, net revenue was $450.6 million compared to $477.3 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2003. This follows dismal results for fiscal year 2003 where the company had a loss of more than $513 million.

For fiscal year 2004, net income, before special charges, was $25.8 million compared to $34.8 million the prior year. Special charges for store closures in the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2002, amounted to $87.5 million. Company documents report 18 stores were closed in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2003. —Andrew Asch