Hundreds Of Store Closures Planned For Victoria’s Secret, Bath & Body Works In 2020

L Brands (LB), the parent company of Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works, is planning on permanently closing hundreds of retail stores under the two brands.

About 250 Victoria’s Secret stores will close in the U.S. and Canada, and 51 Bath & Body Works locations will also close.

L Brands temporarily closed all of its Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works stores in March because of the coronavirus. The company furloughed the majority of its employees the following month and suspended rent payments at its retail stores for April and May. L Brands said it is currently in negotiations with its landlords on further rent payments and occupancy.

The company is also working on reopening its stores amid the coronavirus pandemic and said in a statement, “We intend to thoughtfully open stores throughout the second quarter, taking steps to ensure the safety of our customers and associates, and adhering to government guidelines. We expect that the majority of our stores will be open by the end of July."

L Brands previously entered in an agreement with investment firm Sycamore Partners to sell a 55% stake in Victoria’s Secret. As the deal fell through because of the coronavirus pandemic, L Brands has now made the decision to turn Victoria’s Secret into a separate, standalone company with plans to spinoff Bath & Body Works into a public company.

L Brands released its Q1 earnings report on Wednesday, where it saw net sales decline 37% to $1.654 billion, down from the $2.629 billion in Q1 2019. Sales for Bath & Body Works were $712.7 million, also down from the previous quarter, while Victoria’s Secret sales were $821.5 million for Q1 2020, a decline of 46% from a year earlier.

Shares of L Brand stock were up 14.65% as of 11:16 p.m. EDT on Thursday.