Michael Kors is closing more stores as handbag sales tank

The ubiquitous Michael Kors bag, once a fashion necessity, has become a fashio🎉n liability.

Sales have decline💞d so abysmally over the past couple of years that the company is clos𓂃ing up to 125 stores this year, the company said on Wednesday during its most recent quarterly report.

“Our product and store experience did not sufficiently enga🎀ge and excite consumers,” Ch🍃airman and Chief Executive John Idol said in a statement.

“We need to take further steps to elev꧃ate the level of fashion innovation in our accessories assortꦫments and enhance our store experience,” Idol added in the statement.

The company has also said that, going fꦫorward, it will concentrate more on the🌱 burgeoning markets in Asia.

It wasn’t long ago that the company was “one of the m🐭ost robust growth stories in retail with four years of 25 percent” annual sa♊les growth, according to Wells Fargo analyst Ike Boruchow.

Now Michael Kors has delivered one of the worst perfo🔯rmance𝔍s in fashion retail.

Total sales dropped 11.2 percent, to $1.1 billion, in the fiscal fourth quarter ended Apri༺l 1 — while comparable store sales fell 𒆙14.1 percent.

The compa🎀ny lost $26.8 million in the quarter compared with net income of $177 million a year earlier.

Management also gave a bleak outl🔯ook for the upcoming year.

Idol blamed th🔯e company’s performance, in part, on the “difficult retail environment” in ♑which promotional pricing has sunk the brand’s cachet.

Industry experts, howeve✃r, point to the company’s aggr♉essive expansion, which resulted in 960 Michael Kors stores worldwide.

“When the brand 🀅was just sold in department stores, it did phenomenally well,” said retail consultant Farla Efros, president of HRC✤ Advisory. “When they decided to become a stand-alone retailer, everything changed.”

The store closures are expected toღ save the company $60 million.

While demand for handbags helped to fuel Michael Kors’ rise over the past decade, the handbag sector in general has cooled now a൲s well — with one notable exception.

Coach, one of Kors’ chief rivals, has clawed its way back from a steep slump to four consecutive quarters🍷 of comparable sales growth.

Kors shares tumbled 8.5 percent on 🌺Wednesday, to $33.18, 🍸after hitting a 52-week low earlier in the day.

Shares are down 23 percent this year.