Reaching its limit

Retailer The Limited is set to close South Florida stores on Jan. 7, employees say.

After more than 50 years in operation, The Limited Stores appears to have run its course.

The women’s fashion retailer is closing its South Florida stores and remaining locations nationwide on Jan. 7, management employees at multiple locations said Friday. They declined to be identified by name because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

The New Albany, Ohio-based retailer is also pulling the plug on its online operations, a manager in Coral Springs said. A review of the company’s website showed Friday that the company is offering discounts of between 50 percent to 80 percent for online purchases with the caveat that all sales are final.

The Limited stores sell a range of apparel including shirts, blouses, pants, denim, jackets, sweaters, skirts, dresses, as well as accessories.

The retailer operates seven locations in South Florida that operate under brands The Limited, The Limited Outlet or Backroom by The Limited, according to its website thelimited.com. Besides Coral Springs, the other stores are in Sunrise (Sawgrass Mills), Pembroke Pines (Pembroke Lakes Mall), Aventura (Aventura Mall) and Miami (Miami International Mall, Dadeland Mall and The Falls).

A manager at the company’s store in the Coral Square Mall said the outlet would be shutting down Jan. 7. Employees from two of The Limited’s other stores confirmed Friday that their locations would be closing on the same date, while an employee at a fourth store said operations were scheduled to halt but did not know when.

Earlier this week, the Orlando Sentinel reported that the chain is closing all of its Central Florida stores. Some stores nationwide were shuttered immediately following the peak Christmas holiday shopping season.

In early December, the Columbus Dispatch reported that in a letter to employees, executive vice president and chief operating officer Larry Fultz disclosed that The Limited was struggling with a cash shortage. The company also said it intended to lay off employees at its Ohio headquarters.

“We have now determined that the combination of sales misses and the level of existing financial obligations will require that the company be sold or we will have to wind down our operations due to an anticipated lack of operating capital,” Fultz reportedly wrote in the letter.

The store closures come in the wake of a recent report by Bloomberg News that The Limited is preparing to file for bankruptcy and possible liquidation. Bloomberg also reported that the company retained the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis as its legal adviser, as well as Guggenheim Securities and RAS Management Advisors to assist with debt restructuring and any asset sales.

The troubled retailer has also seen an exodus of top executives in recent months, including interim CEO John Buell, who left earlier this month after assuming the role in October, Bloomberg said. Buell’s predecessor, Limited CEO Diane Ellis, left in early November.

Before the closures began, The Limited, which was founded in Columbus, Ohio in 1963, had 243 stores nationwide, according to the website of its parent private equity firm, Sun Capital Partners Inc., of Boca Raton. In 1990, it had as many as 773 stores, according to the retailer’s corporate historical timeline.

Sun Capital acquired The Limited in August 2007.

Through a spokesman Friday, Sun Capital declined to comment on the store closures and the retailer’s future. Sun Capital’s company portfolio also includes Boston Market, Smokey Bones Bar & Fire Grill, Johnny Rockets, Friendly’s and Bar Louie, according to its website.