NEW YORK >> Ralph Lauren is closing stores, cutting jobs and focusing more on its most popular brands to try to reverse its declining fortunes. Shares of the fashion company fell about 2 percent Tuesday.
The changes are the first big moves from CEO Stefan Larsson, who replaced company founder Ralph Lauren in the role late last year. Lauren is still executive chairman and chief creative officer of the fashion and home decor business he created.
The New York company, known for its polo shirts and pony logo, plans to close more than 50 stores, or about 10 percent of its total retail stores. It will lay off about 1,000 of its 15,000 full-time employees, or almost 7 percent.
It will focus more on its three best-selling brands — Ralph Lauren, Polo and Lauren — and devote fewer resources to its smaller ones, such as Chaps and RLX. The company also hopes to produce its clothing faster, cutting six months from the production process to make it nine months.
Ralph Lauren expects the restructuring to save it between $180 million and $220 million a year. That’s on top of $125 million in cost cuts from last year. It expects to incur restructuring charges of up to $400 million for the year and inventory-related charges of up to $150 million.
Advertisers’ suit against Google to proceed
WASHINGTON >> The Supreme Court won’t hear an appeal from Google over a lawsuit filed by advertisers who claim the internet company displayed their ads on websites of “low quality.”
The justices Monday let stand a lower court ruling that said the lawsuit representing hundreds of thousands of advertisers using Google’s AdWords program could go forward.
Google argued that a federal appeals court in San Francisco should not have approved the class action because damages must be calculated for each company advertiser. The appeals court rejected that argument and approved use of a formula that would calculate harm based on the average advertiser’s experience.
World Bank lowers global growth forecast
WASHINGTON >> The World Bank is reducing its forecast for the global economy this year — again.
The aid agency predicted Tuesday that the world economy will expand 2.4 percent this year, down from the 2.9 percent it expected in January and unchanged from a tepid 2015.
“The global economy is fragile,” said World Bank economist Ayhan Kose, who helped produce the forecast. “Growth is weak.”
On the Move
Two Carlsmith Ball attorneys, Mike Purpura and Pete Manaut, increased their rankings in Chambers USA 2016, a national directory that ranks firms and attorneys based on qualitative and quantitative assessments. Purpura was elevated to Band 1 for litigation: General Commercial, and Manaut rose to Band 2 in the same practice area. Law firms and attorneys are ranked in bands 1-6 in Chambers, with 1 being the best.
Tori Richard has promoted Syri Ross to art director. She oversees the design of textile prints for the company’s women’s and men’s resort apparel lines as well as the Tori Richard Identity Apparel division and its licensed product division. Ross also manages a department of six in-house artists and various freelance commissions. Prior to joining the company six years ago, Ross worked at Universal Limited Art Editions in New York.
