(Filed Under wholesale Lingerie News). Soma comparable sales fell 1.8% in the quarter ended July 29, reversing a lengthy series of positive sales comps dating back (with one negative exception in the third quarter of 2015) since the second quarter of 2009.

Parent company Chico’s FAS also announced that Mary van Praag would start as president of its lingerie division on September 5, 2017. “Van Praag most recently served as CEO of Perricone MD. Prior to that, she held senior executive roles at Coty, Inc. and Johnson & Johnson’s beauty division,” according to a release.

The previous president of Soma, for about seven years, Laurie Van Brunt, left the company last spring.

Said Shelley Broader, president and CEO of Chico’s, “We look forward to leveraging Mary’s global, multi-channel and brand-building expertise, along with her deep understanding of our target customer, to capitalize on Soma’s growth potential.”

Soma’s sales in the second quarter were $91.97 million, compared to $93.53 million in the three months ended July 30, 2016. Soma’s sales made up 15.9% of the Chico’s FAS total of $302.22 million in the latest quarter. The firm’s other apparel brands are Chico’s and White House Black Market.

There are currently 273 Soma “frontline boutiques” and 19 Soma outlets out of the total 1,482 Chico’s stores. — NM

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Published 08-30-2017 by Nick Monjo