• November 5, 2008

Saks says it is pulling the plug on its Club Libby Lu specialty store business, and says that the stores are to be closed by May.

The concept, which expanded the definition of tween all the way down to fashion runways for 4-year-olds, included 20 in-store clubs, as well as 78 stand-alone stores. The company says that Club Libby Lu, which generated sales of $60 million in its most recent fiscal year, was acquired as a growth vehicle for its department store business, which has been sold.

"Discontinuing the operations of Club Libby Lu is the appropriate decision so that we can focus 100% of our time and resources on executing the strategies of our core Saks Fifth Avenue business," the company says in its release. Like other luxury stores, Saks has felt the pinch of non-shopping consumers, and reported that its comparable-store sales fell 11.1% in September.--Sarah Mahoney