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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, January 12, 2008

Pacific Sunwear shuts demo stores

Advertiser Staff

Two demo stores in Hawai'i are headed for closure as part of a plan to phase out the retail clothing chain owned by Pacific Sunwear of California Inc.

Pacific Sunwear is closing 154 of its demo stores, and has retained Gordon Brothers Group unit DJM Realty to sublease or assign all of the store leases.

In Hawai'i, one demo store is at Pearlridge Center and one is at Windward Mall.

The specialty retailer said it expects all stores to be closed by May 3.

The move follows a decision earlier this year by PacSun to close 74 underperforming demo stores, all of which were shuttered. The company said further assessment showed that disposing of the remaining stores would help it focus on its other retail enterprises.

"We strongly believe that the best course for enhancing shareholder value is to focus our attention and resources on the PacSun business," Sally Frame Kasaks, PacSun chairwoman and CEO said in a statement.

PacSun operates about 840 PacSun stores, 120 PacSun Outlet stores and six One Thousand Steps stores.

Anaheim, Calif.-based PacSun is a publicly traded company that has been trying to improve its financial performance.

The firm in August reported a net loss of $15.6 million, or 22 cents per diluted share, in the first six months of its fiscal year, which ended Aug. 4. The loss compared with a net profit of $21.6 million, or 30 cents per diluted share, in the first half of fiscal 2006.

Gordon Brothers is a liquidation firm that has been involved in disposing of store leases for several other chains, including KB Toys and CompUSA.