Say goodbye to Henri Bendel.
Bendel’s parent company, L Brands, announced Thursday that the iconic white-and-brown striped brand will be shockingly shutting down in January of 2019 after 123 years of business. Henri Bendel’s roots date back to 1895, when Henri Bendel himself opened a shop in Greenwich Village, New York. Last Thursday, L Brands chairman and CEO Les Wexner, revealed that Henri Bendel stores and online websites were going to be closing. The company wants to improve productivity and concentrate on its “larger brands that have greater growth potential.” Those larger brands include Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works by the way.
L Brands approximates that Henri Bendel’s 2018 sales and “operating loss, excluding closing costs, will total $85 million and $45 million, respectively.” Last year, L Brands produced $12.6 billion. In other words, Bendel’s loss was definitely outsized.
With 123 years of business, comes a list of accomplishments for such a classic brand. Henri Bendel became the “first retailer to brand himself, the first store with an upper Fifth Avenue address, the first to hold a semi-annual sale, first to offer in-store makeovers, and the first to hold a fashion show,” according to the website. The iconic Fifth Avenue shop opened in 1991 and it was not until 2008 when Henri Bendel began opening shops outside of New York City.
With this disappointing and unsettling news to die-hard Bendel girls, we have to start planning a girls trip to New York City because even Bendel’s retail landmark on the extravagant Fifth Avenue is kissing us goodbye. It’s shop-til-you-drop season and we’re all ready, Henri Bendel. xoxo
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/andriacheng/2018/09/14/this-is-why-l-brands…