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Top Womenswear Executive Resigns from PacSun

Christine Lee, senior vice president of women’s merchandising and design, has resigned from Pacific Sunwear Inc., the surfwear retailer headquartered in Anaheim, Calif. She has been with the company since 2010.

Brieane Breuer, PacSun’s current vice president of women’s design, will take on the added duties of merchandising womenswear on an interim basis, said Gary Schoenfeld, PacSun’s president and chief executive officer, in the July 31 announcement.

“I appreciate all of the efforts Christine has put forth over the past four years to help reposition the PacSun business,” Schoenfeld said in a statement. “I am eager to work even more closely with Brie and the rest of our women’s team to successfully tackle our key initiatives. I am excited by several recent creative concepts coming from our design team and optimistic that the women’s business can soon get back to positive comps as well.”

Schoenfeld outlined several initiatives to improve the women’s merchandise carried at PacSun stores. The department, he said, needs to offer more brands that offer a different point of view from the retailer’s mall competitors. PacSun also needs to lead new trends with styles from its in-house design team. The non-apparel business needs to be boosted, and e-commerce business needs to increase.

However, Schoenfeld said that PacSun’s men’s business was performing well. “Sales trends across the business have generally improved in both June and July with men’s again on track to achieve a positive comp for the second quarter,” he said.

PacSun’s results for the first quarter, ending May 3, 2014, showed that the company had a net loss of $10.4 million on $171.1 million in sales compared with a net loss of $24 million on $166.4 million in sales during the same period last year. Same-store sales increased 3 percent in the first quarter of 2014.

PacSun currently operates 618 stores, with locations in every state and Puerto Rico.