Destination Maternity joins a long line of retail downsizers in recent years, announcing plans to close up to 280 unprofitable stores by 2022, including 117 in fiscal 2018 and another 42 to 67 locations in 2019.
The company expects incremental savings of $1.5 million to $2 million from lease renewal negotiations on owned stores by 2019.
Destination Maternity CEO Marla Ryan told USA Today other changes include testing smaller format stores in an effort to drive higher productivity. Ryan was named CEO in May, the fourth head of the company in less than a year.
In September, Destination Maternity reported a second quarter net sales loss of $96.4 million, down 1.9% from $98.3 million in 2017. The company attributed the loss to the closure of 27 stores, partially offset by an increase in comparable sales, which were up 1.2%. Ecommerce sales were a bright spot, increasing 18.4%.