New from Charming Shoppes

Charming Shoppes, Inc. parent company to Lane Bryant, Catherines, Fashion bug and a few other stores has announced new plans for the upcoming fiscal year. Among these plans will include a few new things.

There will be continued expansion of its Lane Bryant brand and its Cacique brand. They tested a new Lane Bryant store concept with there Cacique stores. This new side-by-side concept has been in test-mode during the past year, with six stores currently in operation, and will begin its roll-out in fiscal year 2007. The majority of full-line store openings for Lane Bryant are expected to be in this new, larger format store.

Additionally, the Company plans to enter the outlet channel, through Lane Bryant(R) Outlet, during July and August 2006, with the opening of approximately 75 to 80 outlet stores in locations acquired through the assumption of store leases from Retail brand Alliance.

The Company will continue to build its infrastructure to prepare for the launch of new catalog offerings, and the launch of the Lane Bryant catalog late in 2007. The Company is also preparing for accelerated growth in e- commerce, and will add cross-channel selling tools to further enhance sales growth.

So that’s it from Charming Shoppes. They have a 5-day online only sale that’s going on. Check out the links section for Lane Bryant for the details.