Mothers Work, Inc. Announces Corporate Name Change to Destination Maternity Corporation
Company Ticker Symbol Changing to 'DEST'
PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Mothers Work, Inc., the
world's leading maternity apparel retailer, today announced that it has
changed its corporate name, effective today, to Destination Maternity
Corporation. The corporate name change was undertaken as an extension of the
Company's previously announced strategic restructuring and streamlining of its
merchandise brands and store nameplates. The name change was accomplished
through the merger of a newly-formed, wholly-owned subsidiary, DM Newco, Inc.,
into Mothers Work, Inc. The Company's Nasdaq symbol will change from "MWRK"
to "DEST" effective December 9, 2008.
Ed Krell, Chief Executive Officer of Destination Maternity Corporation,
commented, "When Mothers Work, Inc. was founded in 1982, our Company's focus
was exclusively on providing wear-to-work maternity apparel for the pregnant
career woman. However, long ago, we extended our reach and our brands to
cover all apparel and related accessory needs of pregnant women, from casual
to career to special occasion, from moderate-priced to luxury-priced, so the
Mothers Work name no longer captures the scope or mission of our business.
"Our comprehensive focus on the needs of all maternity customers is
epitomized by our Destination Maternity(R) multi-brand store concept, which
includes both our moderate-priced Motherhood Maternity(R) brand and our
luxury-priced A Pea in the Pod(R) brand, and provides the broadest range of
maternity apparel products, accessories and services available to the
maternity customer for all of her lifestyle needs. With Destination Maternity
effectively having become our umbrella brand, we believe the name 'Destination
Maternity Corporation' better aligns our corporate name with our merchandise
brands, our store nameplates, and our overall business scope. This corporate
name change will not have any effect on the names of our merchandise brands or
store nameplates, or the strategic restructuring and streamlining of our
merchandise brands and store nameplates that we announced on July 1, 2008. We
continue to feel strongly that this restructuring will help improve our
long-term profitability by simplifying our brand structure, reducing our cost
structure, and leveraging with the consumer both our renowned A Pea in the Pod
luxury brand and our growing multi-brand Destination Maternity store brand.
We believe that our corporate name change to Destination Maternity Corporation
is a timely and logical extension of our re-branding, and better reflects our
corporate mission of being the global leader in the maternity apparel
business."
Destination Maternity Corporation is the world's largest designer and
retailer of maternity apparel, using its custom TrendTrack(TM) merchandise
analysis and planning system as well as its quick response replenishment
process to "give the customer what she wants, when she wants it." As of
November 30, 2008, Destination Maternity Corporation operates 1,037 maternity
locations, including 754 stores, predominantly under the tradenames Motherhood
Maternity(R), A Pea in the Pod(R), Mimi Maternity(R), and Destination
Maternity(R), and sells on the web through its DestinationMaternity.com and
brand-specific websites. In addition, Mothers Work distributes its Oh Baby by
Motherhood(TM) collection through a licensed arrangement at Kohl's(R) stores
throughout the United States and on Kohls.com.
The Company cautions that any forward-looking statements (as such term is
defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) contained in
this press release or made from time to time by management of the Company,
including those regarding expected net sales, comparable store sales, free
cash flow or other results of operations, liquidity and financial condition,
expense savings, potential debt prepayments, potential stock repurchases, and
various business initiatives, involve risks and uncertainties, and are subject
to change based on various important factors. The following factors, among
others, in some cases have affected and in the future could affect the
Company's financial performance and actual results and could cause actual
results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any such
forward-looking statements: our ability to successfully manage our various
business initiatives, our ability to successfully implement our merchandise
brand and retail nameplate restructuring, the success of our international
expansion, our ability to successfully manage and retain our leased department
and licensed relationships and marketing partnerships, future sales trends in
our existing store base, unusual weather patterns, changes in consumer
preferences and spending patterns, demographics and other macroeconomic
factors that may impact the level of spending for maternity apparel, overall
economic conditions and other factors affecting consumer confidence, the
impact of competition and fluctuations in the price, availability and quality
of raw materials and contracted products, availability of suitable store
locations, continued availability of capital and financing, ability to hire
and develop senior management and sales associates, ability to develop and
source merchandise, ability to receive production from foreign sources on a
timely basis, potential stock repurchases, potential debt prepayments, changes
in market interest rates, war or acts of terrorism, unusual weather patterns
and other factors set forth in the Company's periodic filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, or in materials incorporated therein by
reference.
