PacSun Gets Full-Time CEO
Pacific Sunwear of California Inc., the surf and skate retail chain that has been having a hard time appealing to its young customer base, has decided to give its interim chief executive a full-time job.
The board of directors announced May 23 it would make Sally Frame Kasaks the company’s permanent chairman and chief executive. She has been filling the CEO slot for the Anaheim, Calif., company since October.
Kasaks, in a previous interview with the California Apparel News, noted that the search for a chief executive was tough because so many major retail and apparel companies were seeking skilled executives to fill the top spot. She noted that PacSun needed someone adept at branding and merchandising.
Kasaks fits that description. She has loads of retail experience as the former chairman and chief executive of Ann Taylor Stores Inc. and the former president and chief executive officer of Abercrombie & Fitch Co.
Many doubted she would take the job because she was basically an East Coast person. But Kasaks signed an employment agreement that extends through the end of the company’s fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2010.
Lately, PacSun has been struggling to overcome stiff competition with upstarts such as Zumiez, a smaller mall-based chain, and Hollister, an Abercrombie & Fitch spin-off.
PacSun’s most recent first-quarter results, released May 21, showed the company had a net loss of $5.1 million on $320.6 million in sales. During the same time last year, it had net earnings of $11.9 million.—D.B.
