Bebe’s Fabricant Joins Aeropostale
Bebe Stores Inc. announced Aug. 17 that Emilia Fabricant, president of the Brisbane, Calif.–based retailer’s Bebe division, would leave the company for “personal reasons” effective immediately. Fabricant’s duties are being taken over by Bebe Stores Inc. founder and Chief Executive Manny Mashouf and Renee Bell, Bebe’s executive vice president of merchandising.
Fabricant joined Bebe in August 2010 after a high-profile career of holding senior executive positions for retailers such as Barneys New York, Charlotte Russe and Destination Maternity Corp. She developed a reputation for being a turnaround artist, taking floundering companies and putting them on the path to profitability.
When Fabricant joined Bebe, the mall-based contemporary retailer announced it would shutter or convert its 48 stores doing business under the nameplate PH8. For the 2010 fiscal fourth quarter, same-store sales decreased 3.4 percent, compared with a decline of 29.6 percent the previous year.
Bebe’s business rallied a couple of quarters later. The retailer’s same-store sales for the year-to-date period ending Dec. 31, 2011, showed an increase of 8.4 percent, compared with a decrease of 2.3 percent for the previous year.
The contemporary retailer has stumbled since then. Last month, it was announced that the same-store sales for its fourth quarter for 2012 declined 2.5 percent, compared with a 7.5 percent increase the previous fiscal year.
Despite the decline, the outlook is still bright for Bebe, Roth Capital Partners analyst Liz Pierce wrote in a July 10 research note. The company has a strong balance sheet, and changes in the retailer’s merchandise assortment were moving in the right direction.
Pierce reported being shocked over Fabricant’s departure. “It kind of came out of left field,” she said. “It’s hard to believe that one disappointing quarter would lead to this.”
Fabricant’s exit from Bebe was announced less than one month after another retailer, The Wet Seal Inc., ousted its chief executive, Susan P. McGalla, amid declining sales at the Foothill Ranch, Calif.–based company.
—Andrew Asch
