Predicted low sales and revenue for 2015 will force Coach to close 70 stores, as the retailer attempts to maintain strides with fellow rivals Kate Spade and Michael Kors.
Two outlets will be closed and 13 men's and women's stores consolidated as part of the slim-down, according to The Globe and Mail. Coach reportedly owned 351 stores and 193 factory outlets in North America in 2013, which accounted for 70 percent of the company's revenue.
The retailer anticipates its revenue will drop to the low double digits by the time the current fiscal year ends in June 2015. Company-wide sales in the United States have reportedly decreased to the upper double digits in the recent past. Coach's stock dropped to 11 percent on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday.
"They [Coach] over invested in their outlets and they under estimated their brand," Paul Swinand, an analyst at independent investment research firm Morningstar told Reuters.
"Consumers visiting our outlet stores will see less logo, more leather, more lifestyle categories," said Della Badia, Coach's retail manager for North America.
The company will focus on marketing and promoting itself in essential regions of the country where its biggest stores are located, in order to offset its difficult financial times and move forward. This stems from a 2013 announcement from the retailer that stated intentions to ramp up its inventory and re-define itself as a lifestyle business that offers a larger variety of shoes and clothes.
Coach also plans to hold sales twice a year so the company can regain the customers it lost during this period of financial struggles.
