A Lululemon store in Seattle, Wash. is set to close at the end of the month, according to local news reports.
Located inside the Pacific Place shopping center in downtown Seattle, the store is reported to be closing due to lower-than-expected sales. Local Seattle media outlet KOMO News reported that approximately 20 people work at the store.
FN has reached out to Lululemon for comment.
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This closing follows a string of reports of the Vancouver-based athletic company quietly shuttering some stores. In December, the company closed its Navy Yard neighborhood store in Washington, D.C. less than two weeks after it was robbed.
Other recent reported closures occurred at Lululemon’s downtown Lincoln, Neb. store in January, at its Hyde Park store in Chicago’s south side in November and at its West Market Street Station store in Akron, Ohio this past June.
The closures come after Lululemon reported in March that its fourth-quarter net income jumped more than fivefold to $669.5 million from $119.8 million a year earlier, when the bottom line was pulled down by $442.7 million in charges tied to the Mirror at home workout tech business.
Net sales in Q4 increased 16 percent to $3.2 billion — in line with analysts’ expectations, while net sales for the full year increased 19 percent to $9.6 billion.
But Lululemon sees that growth rate slowing and is projecting sales gains for 2024 of 11 percent to 12 percent. That puts the top line in a range of $10.7 billion to $10.8 billion, with the help of an extra week in the current fiscal year.
Lululemon opened 25 net new stores in the fourth quarter and completed 15 co-located optimizations, representing square footage growth of 15 percent, the company said. New store development will slow to 35 to 40 net new stores this year, yielding low-double-digit square footage growth inclusive of about 40 optimizations (including 15 to 20 in North America). Development this year is expected to include 5 to 10 North American locations and about 30 international locations, with the majority in China.
