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Leather Town closing Valley Plaza store
| Wednesday, Aug 6 2008 7:28 PM
Last Updated: Thursday, Aug 7 2008 7:24 AM
Leather Town, a clothing and accessories retailer based in Sylmar, is closing its Bakersfield store at Valley Plaza at the end of the month.
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The closing is part of a larger downsizing that has seen the chain shrink from 11 stores less than two years ago to six today. Earlier this year, Leather Town shuttered stores in Ventura and San Jose. After scheduled closings in Bakersfield and Lakewood, only four stores will remain.
Sales companywide are down 40 percent from their peak in late 2003 and early 2004, said chief executive Sean Demin. At the same time, the company’s costs are going up.
“This is a high overhead business,” Demin said. “More than a quarter of our revenue goes to pay rent, which has been going up 5 to 15 percent a year.
“Raw materials, especially leather, are through the roof. Stuff that used to cost us $100 is now $125 to $130, and you can’t pass those costs on to customers in this economy. They can’t pay it.”
The company’s plan is to operate its few remaining stores “until we can return to profitability, and then hopefully, if the economy rebounds, we can come back to some of the stores we closed.”
The Bakersfield store, which opened in 1992, had as many as seven employees at one time, but is down to three in its last month of business.
Merchandise at the 1,200-square-foot store across from JC Penney is on clearance in preparation for vacating the site Aug. 31.