The Rise and Fall of Retailer Charming Charlie

Charming Charlie is a fashion retailer that is based out of Houston Texas. The chain specializes in jewelry and other fashion accessories. Their featured items are one of a kind and they place the spotlight on using in fashion. The business established a solid following of women who purchased merchandise for gifts, for personal makeovers and to enhance their current couture with bright splashes of color. The goal of the company has been to brighten the lives of women and helping them to learn how to use color to do that very thing. The in store experience is one that many women look forward to because of the vast arrays of attractive merchandise that is geared towards the improvement of self-image and mood uplifting. The collections are carefully curated and difficult to find anywhere else. Needless to say Charming Charlies is a popular venue for fashion and beauty that has been in business since 2004.

A place where women could bond

Although it might sound a bit clique, Charming Charlies truly was an establishment where women could go shopping for new and unique beauty enhancements and bond. The offerings were vast when times were good, and the store sold things that made women feel special and good about themselves. There was something special about the experience of going with a sister, friend or other family member and finding a one of a kind item that nobody else had. You could fairly assess that for some women, a trip to Charming Charlies was a life-changing experience that lifted their spirits and gave them new beauty accessories to take home and experiment with.

Getting in on the online action

Charming Charlies executive planners understood the importance of having an online presence. Although there was no way to accurately imitate the in store experience, the website was well thought out and popular for the convenience of at-home shopping. This helped to keep the business strong when many retailers who refused to use online retail as a resource for meeting customer demand for ease of shopping and convenience. The multi-award winning retailer became a leader in the retail revolution that highlighted women’s fashion accessories and customized customer experience. This is one of the marketing moves that they did right, but in other areas of their strategic plan, something went terribly wrong. How could a thriving business that seemed to be on the top of the world fall into dire financial straights in a short period of time?

Financial disaster hit Charming Charlie

Charming Charlies opened stores from one coast to another in the United States. With eleven in the Houston area alone, the total number of stores reached 260, then before their financial crisis turned into 375. This was before a series of miscalculations in the merchandising department, a lack of inventory and a broad vendor base with some vendors who failed to deliver with some consistency. This led to a 75% drop in sales and a 22% decline in profits. It’s still unclear how the once thriving business could have fallen so far down before somebody realized that there was a problem. It points to a weakness in management on multiple levels. Where were the checks and balances and upon whom did the ultimate responsibility lie for ensuring that the operations were flowing properly? These are questions that remain unanswered, but then again, more often than not, when there are serious deficiencies within certain departments, the problems are addressed internally and not shared publicly. The company had run out of cash and could no longer operate its business responsibly. Charming Charlies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Charming Charlie changes hands

Upon the exit from Bankruptcy, Charming Charlie emerged with a reorganization plan. There would be a need to close some of its brick and mortar retail stores, but the majority of them would remain open. It has not yet been decided which will close, but it has been determined that at the end of the restructuring, only 264 of the 375 will remain open. The term lenders and equity sponsors are working with the retailer in their efforts to reorganize.

Due to the findings of neglectful practices, Charming Charlies was taken over by the lenders including THL Credit who holds the majority of the equity in the business. The new CEO of the company is Lana Krauter who shared that the business plans to recover and move forward from this unfortunate period in their history. The website for Charming Charlies is open and they’re still conducting business along with hundreds of brick and mortar stores which still have their doors open. They’re looking forward to leaving this part of their history behind and rebuilding the chain to its once former glory. The company likely still has the backing of a major financial stakeholder and under more stringent and vigilant leadership may still be able to pull the company out of the mire and set it back on a solid financial footing. According to the new management, this is not the end for Charming Charlies, but instead, it’s a new beginning and another chance to fix what was broken and set new and more efficient systems and managers in place. It seems that there is ample optimism on the part of the new leadership and financial backers.

Final thoughts

Charming Charlies is a beloved fashion retailer that fell on rough times because of mismanagement of inventories and merchandising. The brand still maintains a solid group of followers and the demand for their products remains strong. With the right type of forwarding thinking and a leadership that carefully monitors growth areas that were previously weak, it’s likely that they will continue serving their dedicated customers. Charming Charlies is not the first group to have these type issues and it won’t be the last. So long as they don’t try to grow too rapidly after their recovery, the newly restructured business stands a chance of holding onto the market share that remains and regaining lost ground at a slow and steady pace. We’ll all have to wait and see what happens.