Retail Brand Alliance, the owner of Brooks Brothers and Adrienne Vittadini, is near an agreement to sell Casual Corner to Gordon Brothers, a liquidator, which may shut some stores and sell others to rivals.
Casual Corner, which operates mall-based specialty stores under the Casual Corner and Petite Sophisticate names, has been struggling for years. Selling the chain, which consists of 575 leases subdivided into roughly 1,000 boutiques, will allow Retail Brand Alliance to focus squarely on its Brooks Brothers chain.
New York & Co., a rival mid-priced women’s clothing chain, had initially teamed up with Gordon Brothers for a joint acquisition that would give it about 200 to 300 Casual Corner stores, a source said. That deal ultimately fell through over problems with landlords, this person said.
The purchase price was not disclosed. But a person familiar with the situation said it was less than the original $250 million asking price.
“The sale of Casual Corner allows Claudio Del Vecchio,” the president and chief executive of Retail Brand Alliance, “to spend all of his time on building the Brooks Brothers franchise,” said Gilbert Harrison, chairman of Financo, an investment bank that advised Del Vecchio on the deal.
The Post reported in September that Retail Brand Alliance, based in Enfield, Conn., had put the Casual Corner chain on the block.