Apparel Online India Magazine July 1st Issue 2018 | Page 13

RETAIL CURRENT
rue21 appoints ex-Chico's
FAS exec as CEO
American fast-fashion retailer,
rue21, has appointed Laurie Van
Brunt as CEO of the company.
Brunt is an experienced retailer
who was serving as President of
Chico’s FAS-owned Soma brand
that retails lingerie, sleepwear
and beauty products. Notably,
while serving as President at
Soma, she managed to grow the
revenue of the brand to US $ 350
million in 2017 as compared to
US $ 87 million in 2010. She also
led the company’s charge into
e-retailing.
After exiting bankruptcy back in
October last year, the company
has been searching for a new
management and along with
Van Brunt, the US-based teen
retailer has also roped in Stephen
Sommers (Ex. CEO, Vineyard
Vines) as Chief Marketing Officer
and Michele Pascoe as its Chief
Financial Officer (former Senior
Director, Alvarez & Marshal
Markedly, Michael Appel, who
served as the interim CEO of the
company after exiting bankruptcy,
will be taking back his designated
position as the Chairman of
the Board.
“With our increased funding
in place along with our new
top brass, and the usage of
innovative data analytics to
run our business, we as a group
are expecting the brand to be
better than before and deliver
positive results in the time to
come,” said Appel. Reportedly,
due to bankruptcy, rue21 had
to shut around 400 of its stores
and appointed three different
(interim) CEOs in last three years.
It currently operates 753 stores
in the US. It will be a tough task
for the new management to take
the brand out of dire-straits, as
it remains to be seen what the
fresh force has to offer to the teen
fashion retailer.
Zara to embrace technology to keep pace
with rivals
Inditex, which owns fast fashion
brand Zara, has been lately facing
tough competition, especially from
its young rivals. The young rivals,
such as Missguided, have managed
to quickly carve a niche for itself by
producing clothes at a faster pace.
To combat this threat, Inditex is all
set to embrace new technologies by
not only tying up with tech firms,
but also by recruiting new talents
from start-ups. While the success of
this tie-up will determine if Inditex
is able to keep itself ahead of its
competitors, it will also make clear if
the combination of online sales and
retail stores will prevail in future.
Reportedly, the innovation unit
at Inditex has tied up with Fetch
Robotics (US-based) to test the
functioning of robots in stock
inventory. Besides, Inditex has
joined hands with Intel to make
devices that will help in quickly
measuring the amount of apparels in
boxes. Inditex said that it is focusing
on technologies that will enable
them to keep a track of footfall in
retail shops. Additionally, it also
plans to use virtual assistants to
guide the shoppers. The company
has also entered into partnership
with Jetlore that uses artificial
intelligence in order to study the
behaviour of consumers.
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