Ascena Retail Group, Inc. was an American

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholes ...

er of women's clothing. Ascena also owns Lane Bryant clothing store brand, and is the parent company of Ann Inc., operator of Ann Taylor and Loft stores. In 2023 the remaining brands of Ascena were merged with other acquired assets of

Sycamore Partners Sycamore Partners is an American private equity firm based in New York specializing in retail and consumer investments. The firm has approximately $10 billion in aggregate committed capital. History Founding Sycamore Partners was founded in 2 ...

to become KnitWell Group. Chairman Emeritus Elliot Jaffe and his wife and co-founder, Roslyn, own about 25% of Ascena.

History

Founding and growth (1962–2019)

The first Dressbarn was opened in February 1962 in

Stamford, Connecticut Stamford () is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, outside of New York City. It is the sixth-most populous city in New England. Stamford is also the largest city in the Western Connecticut Planning Region, Connecticut, Weste ...

, by Roslyn Jaffe. Jaffe saw the opportunity to provide wear-to-work dresses and clothing for the working woman during a time when women were entering the workforce in greater numbers. The company began trading on

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

(symbol DBRN) in 1982. In January 2011, to reflect its broader holdings, the company was reorganized as a

Delaware corporation The Delaware General Corporation Law (sometimes abbreviated DGCL), officially the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware (Title 8, Chapter 1 of the Delaware Code), is the statute of the Delaware Code that governs corporate law in the U. ...

named Ascena Retail Group, Inc. The company's NASDAQ symbol also changed to ASNA in 2011. In 2005, Ascena Retail Group acquired Maurices Inc. from American Retail Group. The name Ascena is derived from the previous parent company of Maurices, C&A Netherland. A.merican S.ervices C. en A. whereby "en" is "and" in Dutch. In 2009, Ascena Retail Group expanded into the girls' clothing market by purchasing Tween Brands, the owner of the Justice chain of 891 stores. Justice, which is aimed at girls between ages 7 and 14, is the successor of Limited Too, originally launched in 1987 by The Limited. Limited Too changed its name to Tween Brands in 2008, and the company had almost completely converted its remaining Limited Too stores to Justice stores at the time of the Ascena acquisition. In 2012, Ascena Retail Group acquired Charming Shoppes, which was the parent holding company for Lane Bryant, Cacique and Catherines Plus, for $900 million. On May 18, 2015, Ascena Group agreed to a $2.16 billion acquisition of Ann Inc., the parent company of clothing retailers Ann Taylor and Loft. Ascena Group completed its acquisition of Ann Inc on August 21, 2015. Ann Inc. operates as an Ascena Group subsidiary. On May 1, 2019, David Jaffe stepped down as Ascena's CEO and as chairman of the board after a 27-year tenure, although he retained a non-chair board seat. Ascena Brands president and CEO Gary Muto replaced Jaffe as Ascena Retail Group's CEO. Ascena president and Chief Operating Officer Brian Lynch also left the company on May 1. On May 20, 2019, Ascena announced that it was closing all of its approximately 650 Dressbarn locations, which they did on December 26.

Pandemic and closures (2020–2021)

On July 23, 2020, the company filed for

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, w ...

and announced the closing of all Catherines and Lou & Grey stores, a significant number of Justice stores, and a select number of Ann Taylor, LOFT, and Lane Bryant stores. On November 11, 2020, Ascena Brands announced the closure of all remaining

Justice In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...

stores as well as the online website after the brand was sold to Bluestar Alliance LLC. In December 2020, a study from Coresight Research found that of all American retailers, Ascena Retail had closed the most locations in 2020, at 1,200 closures of 8,400 in the country overall. On December 23, 2020, Ascena announced that

has completed its acquisition of Ann Taylor, LOFT, Lou & Grey and Lane Bryant brands. Ascena is now a privately held company owned by Sycamore Partners and no longer a publicly traded company and has emerged out of bankruptcy. On January 4, 2021, Gary Muto stepped down as CEO of Ascena and in place Lizanne Kindler was named as the Executive Chair and Interim Chief Executive Officer of Ascena. On August 30, 2023, Sycamore Partners announced the new KnitWell Group that would merge Talbots with the remaining Ascena Retail Group assets.

References

External links

KnitWell Group official websiteAscena Group official websiteDressbarn official website
{{Ascena Retail Group Clothing retailers of the United States Retail companies established in 1962 American companies established in 1962 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020 Companies based in Bergen County, New Jersey Retail companies based in New Jersey Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq 1962 establishments in Connecticut Mahwah, New Jersey 1980s initial public offerings Ascena Retail Group Companies traded over-the-counter in the United States