Updated 7/16 at 2:29 p.m. to include info about the former Bebe Sport store at the Irvine Spectrum Center.
Bebe Stores announced Tuesday that it will close all 62 Bebe Sport women’s clothing stores and replace them with a new store concept called PH8.
Bebe Sport has three stores in Orange County: The Shops at Mission Viejo, Brea Mall and Westfield MainPlace in Santa Ana, according to its Web site.
Here’s an excerpt from the company press release:
Scheduled to launch in November 2009, PH8 stores will replace the existing 62 BEBE SPORT stores operating throughout the U.S. and Canada. While shuttering the BEBE SPORT retail concept, the company will maintain the BEBE SPORT trademark and will sell some BEBE SPORT product out of our bebe retail stores.
The PH8 stores will carry playfully sexy fashion-forward active street wear and performance product under the PH8 label reflecting a dramatic evolution of the BEBE SPORT concept.
“In this new economy, there is a heightened consumer consciousness and with it comes an increasing demand for clothes that are less about logos and more about great design, quality and comfort,” said Tara Poseley, recently appointed President of PH8. “Savvier women are looking for clothes they can wear everyday ‘on-the-go’ whether to a yoga class, grabbing a coffee with friends or attending school activities with their children – clothes that are fashionably chic, modern and easy to dress up or down.”
In late June, Elizabeth Pierce, retail analyst for Roth Capital Partners in Newport Beach, predicted that the company may shut down the Bebe Sport chain. To read an excerpt from her report, CLICK HERE.
In January, Bebe Sport closed a store at the Irvine Spectrum Center, said John Christensen, spokesman for the Irvine Co., which owns the shopping center. “Although we have prospective tenants interested in that space, we do not have any specific information to announce at this time,” Christensen said Thursday via e-mail.
More from OC Retail:
- Women’s clothing retailer closes store near O.C.
- Will big clothing maker seek bankruptcy protection?
- Will Fashion Island store close?
- Home store at South Coast Plaza to close
- Shoes sold at Nordstrom, Rack stores recalled
- Women’s clothing retailer to close O.C. store
- Sears closes O.C. store
- Irvine Spectrum gets new store
- Another Fashion Island store closes
- Pottery Barn closes O.C. store
- Irvine Spectrum store closes
- Family may reopen Mervyn’s stores
- Eyewear retailer to close 117 stores
- Is Target losing its bullseye?
- $35 movie ticket may be coming to O.C.
- Brea Mall, South Coast Plaza stores’ owner seeks bankruptcy
For more from OC Retail, see list of links on the right-hand side of this blog.
Isn’t that just rebranding not really closing and reopening when it is the same ownership, buyers, management and proabaly same employees that will be selling you $100 low-rise stretchy pants?