Bebe Sport to Be Replaced With PH8 Nameplate
Bebe Stores Inc. announced it will be closing all its Bebe Sport stores and replacing them by November with a new store concept called PH8.
Bebe Chairman and Chief Executive Manny Mashouf said the 62 Bebe Sport stores in the United States and Canada had been underperforming and needed to be changed. “The concept performance [of Bebe Sport] has been disappointing,” Mashouf said in a May conference call with analysts.
Tara Poseley, who joined the company in May as president of Bebe Sport, will now be PH8’s president.
The new store will carry sexy, fashion-forward active streetwear and performance wear under the PH8 label. “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. Savvier women are looking for clothes they can wear every day on the go, whether to a yoga class, grabbing a coffee with friends or attending school activities with their children,” Poseley said in a statement.
The crafting of a new look for Bebe’s activewear was a necessary step for the label, according to Jeffrey Van Sinderen, a retail analyst for Los Angeles–based B. Riley & Co. However, it remains to be seen whether consumers will embrace the new nameplate. PH8 also will have to build its own success. It will not be expected to have the high synergy Bebe Sport once had with Bebe. “It will be two separate brands and two separate concepts,” Van Sinderen said of PH8.
Bebe will keep the Bebe Sport trademark and sell Bebe Sport clothing out of its 211 Bebe stores. Bebe also operates 34 2B Bebe stores and one Bebe Accessories store.
Bebe Stores, based in Brisbane, Calif., has had a few rough months. It posted a $5 million net loss on $127.6 million in revenues for its third fiscal quarter, ending April 4.
Mashouf, who had been in semi-retirement for the past five years, came on board full time to make the publicly traded company more profitable. —Deborah Belgum
