francesca’s® Announces Appointment of Andrew Clarke to President and Chief Executive Officer
14 February 2020 - 8:01AM
Francesca’s Holdings Corporation (Nasdaq: FRAN) today announced the
appointment of Mr. Andrew Clarke as the Company’s President and
Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) and as a member of the board of
directors, effective March 9, 2020. Mr. Clarke will replace
Mr. Michael Prendergast who has served as Interim CEO since
February 4, 2019. As part of the Company’s consulting agreement
with Alvarez and Marsal (“A&M”), Mr. Prendergast will remain
with francesca’s for a period of time to ensure a seamless
transition. In addition, A&M’s merchandising, planning
and allocation consulting services will continue until those roles
are replaced.
Mr. Clarke brings 25 years of specialty retail experience to
francesca’s, including five years of c-suite leadership positions
with U.S. retailers and 20 years spent at three of Europe’s largest
retail groups. Most recently, he served as President of LOFT, a
women’s specialty apparel retail brand owned by Ascena Retail
Group. Prior to that, Mr. Clarke was EVP, Chief Merchandising
Officer at Justice, also owned by Ascena Retail Group. In
both roles, he delivered strong sales growth in stores and
e-commerce channels through leading digital technology and customer
insights initiatives, successfully building a more agile,
customer-centric organization. Previously, Mr. Clarke held various
merchandising leadership positions at Kmart, Pimkie, a $1 billion
women’s fashion brand owned by French retail conglomerate, Mulliez,
Marks & Spencer, and New Look Retailers, a $3 billion fast
fashion apparel retailer in based in Europe.
“After a thoughtful and extensive search, we are delighted to be
welcoming Andrew to lead francesca’s into the next phase of our
turnaround,” said Rich Emmett, francesca’s Chairman of the Board.
“We believe Andrew’s proven track record in specialty retail,
including successful transformation initiatives, combined with his
experience across merchandising, sourcing, planning &
allocation, and consumer insights, make him an excellent choice to
lead the francesca’s Brand. I want to thank Michael for his
tremendous contributions toward bringing francesca’s back to its
roots and laying a foundation for long-term success. We
believe that it is an ideal time to transition the reigns to a
permanent and highly capable executive and we are thrilled to have
Andrew lead us into our next phase in positioning the Company for
consistent profitable growth.”
Mr. Clarke commented, “I am excited to join francesca’s as I
have long-admired the Brand. I believe francesca’s offers a
highly differentiated business model within the retail landscape
with an eclectic boutique format reflecting a diversified
assortment of products at very attractive price points. As consumer
shopping behavior shifts towards enjoyable treasure hunt shopping
experiences, I see tremendous opportunity to build on francesca’s
strong DNA to capitalize on its competitive positioning and create
a truly exciting and unique customer experience across both our
retail stores and e-commerce platforms. I look forward to drawing
on my background to deliver top line growth through product and
brand strategies as well as improving profitability through
disciplined inventory management and continued expense
controls.”
Conference Call Information
The Company plans to hold a conference call to discuss its
fourth quarter and fiscal year 2019 results on March 24, 2020 at
8:30 a.m. ET. To participate in the call, please dial
1-877-451-6152 and passcode 13699221. To listen to a live webcast
via the internet, please visit the investor relations section of
the Company's website, www.francescas.com.
In addition, a replay of the call will be available after the
conclusion of the call and remain available until March 31, 2020.
To access the telephone replay, listeners should dial
1-844-512-2921. The access code for the replay is 13699221. A
replay of the web cast will also be available shortly after the
conclusion of the call and will remain on the website for ninety
days.
About Francesca's Holdings Corporation
francesca's® is a specialty retailer which operates a
nationwide-chain of boutiques providing customers a unique, fun and
personalized shopping experience. The merchandise assortment is a
diverse and balanced mix of apparel, jewelry, accessories and
gifts. As of today, francesca's® operated approximately 711
boutiques in 47 states throughout the United States and the
District of Columbia and also serves its customers through
francescas.com. For additional information on francesca's®, please
visit www.francescas.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this release are “forward-looking
statements” made pursuant to the safe-harbor provisions of the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Such
forward-looking statements reflect the Company’s current
expectations or beliefs concerning future events and are subject to
various risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to
differ materially from those that are expected. These risks and
uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the following: the
risk that the Company may not be able to successfully execute its
turnaround plan; the risk that the Company may not be able to
successfully integrate its new Chief Executive Officer, the risk
that the Company may not be able to identify suitably qualified and
experienced candidates to add to its Board of Directors; the risk
that the Company cannot anticipate, identify and respond quickly to
changing fashion trends and customer preferences or changes in
consumer environment, including changing expectations of service
and experience in boutiques and online, and evolve its business
model; the Company’s ability to attract a sufficient number of
customers to its boutiques or sell sufficient quantities of its
merchandise through its ecommerce website; the Company’s ability to
successfully open, close, refresh, and operate our boutiques each
year; the Company’s ability to efficiently source and distribute
merchandise quantities necessary to support its operations; and the
impact of potential tariff increases or new tariffs. For additional
information regarding these and other risks and uncertainties that
could cause actual results to differ materially from those
contained in the Company’s forward-looking statements, please refer
to “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for
the year ended February 3, 2019 filed with the SEC on May 3, 2019
and any risk factors contained in subsequent quarterly and annual
reports it files with the SEC. The Company undertakes no obligation
to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement.
CONTACT: |
|
ICR, Inc. |
Company |
Jean Fontana |
Cindy Thomassee 832-494-2240 |
646-277-1214 |
Kate Venturina 713-864-1358 ext.
1145 |
|
IR@francescas.com |
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