(Filed Under Financial and General Interest News). American Apparel Inc. reported that two of its company board have members have resigned.

There was speculation that board changes were on the horizon, as the clothing manufacturer and retailer recently reported that new board members had been appointed. One position started immediately and the other was "effective upon a future board vacancy," according to a company filing.

American Apparel Chief Executive Officer Dov Charney denied that the outgoing board members, Mark Samson and Mark Thornton, had been asked to leave. Speculation was rampant that the directors had been forced out due to their disagreement with American Apparel’s decision not to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year.

In a filing, the company stated that Samson and Thornton’s departures were not due to "any matter relating to the company’s operations, policies or practices." American Apparel’s new board members are David Danziger, most recently a partner at MSCM, a Toronto-based accounting firm; and Marvin Igelman, a director and strategy officer at Poynt Corp., a Canadian mobile location search company.

The company reported that there was a 3 percent increase in comparable sales for the month of June. Total sales for the second quarter came to $132 million, flat compared with the same quarter one year ago.

American Apparel also reported that online sales rose 19 percent while wholesale sales fell 4 percent.

"With a continued emphasis on improving manufacturing efficiency, and despite the effect of cotton price increases, we believe ours will be a story of improving sales," Charney said in a statement. "Our focus will be to optimize product mix in stores, the in-store customer experience and the overall profitability of our store base."

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Published 07-08-2011 by Katherine Rautenberg