Bank Clothiers

Men's clothing store chain JoS. A. Bank Clothiers Inc. now has 601 stores across the United States, the company announced Monday. The Hampstead-based public company opened two stores on Friday - one in Miami and the second in southeastern Michigan, the company said. "Achieving the 600 store level represents a significant milestone," said CEO R. Neal Black in a statement. "Over the past 5 years, we have opened more than 190 new stores. " JoS. A Bank expects to expand to 800 stores - 700 "full-line" stores and 100 factory outlets, the company's statement said.

Jos. A. Bank Clothiers saw its earnings slide in the fourth quarter as the menswear retailer attempted to fight off a takeover by Men's Wearhouse. The Hampstead-based retailer ultimately succumbed, agreeing to a $1.8 billion merger with its larger rival in March. For the quarter ended Feb. 1, Bank reported that it earned $27.4 million, down from $28.4 million in the comparable quarter a year earlier. Earnings per share slipped to 98 cents from $1.01. Bank said legal and advisory costs related to the takeover battle reduced its earnings per share by 7 cents.

LOCALLY Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc. Shares of the Hampstead-based men's clothier surged 4.4 percent yesterday, closing up $1.19 to $28, after the company reported a 25.3 percent increase in total sales, to $21.8 million, for August, and a 35.1 percent increase in combined catalog and Internet sales for the month. NATIONALLY CoolBrands International Inc. The frozen-dessert maker locked in a licensing dispute with Weight Watchers International Inc. said yesterday that its fiscal 2004 per-share profit rose 64 percent, short of analysts' forecasts.

The purchase of Hampstead-based Jos. A. Bank Clothiers by Men's Wearhouse will likely mean fewer jobs in Carroll County, where the suit company is the fourth-largest employer. Local officials said Tuesday that it is too early to know how severe the job loss will be at Bank's headquarters and its three distribution centers in the county. "We just have to keep our fingers crossed," said County Commissioner Haven Shoemaker, whose District 2 includes Hampstead and whose son and brother work for Bank.

Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc., now in its fifth consecutive quarter in the black, said yesterday that earnings in the first quarter of the year doubled to $400,000, or 6 cents a share, compared with $200,000, or 3 cents a share, in the first quarter of 1996.The company said the results were affected by improved margins and new-store openings last year.The results for the quarter ended May 3 were 1 cent better than analysts' expectations.The company says it intends to open a total of 11 new stores from Louisiana to New York this year, including one in Columbia that is expected to debut in the fall.

After rebounding from the financial problems of last year, Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc. said yesterday that it will capitalize on six months of positive earnings and open 25 new stores in the next 2 1/2 years.The Hampstead-based men's apparel company said earnings grew to $200,000, or 3 cents a share, for the quarter ended Aug. 2, compared with a loss of $600,000, or 8 cents, for the same period in 1996."I think the apparel market rebounded somewhat and we rode it," said Timothy F. Finley, chairman and chief executive officer of the company.

This is a lousy time -- and Maryland is a lousy place -- to be looking for a job. But don't tell Timothy F. Finley.As chief executive of Hampstead-based Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc., he is among the small group of Maryland executives who are boosting employment these days.A report released Thursday said that Maryland suffered the second-largest job loss of any state in the 12 months that ended in July. But Bank is heading in the other direction. An aggressive expansion campaign -- including six new stores planned this month -- has meant dozens of new manufacturing jobs in Maryland.

Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc. has signed a lease to open its first airport store at the mall taking shape at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. The Hampstead-based retailer plans to use the new location to target the business traveler, including men running late for flights who may have forgotten to pack that tie or pair of dress socks. The 966-square-foot store, to open in May in the new Southwest Airlines concourse, will carry Bank's travel-ready attire, a line of wrinkle-free suits, shirts and accessories.

Most retailers would just as soon forget Holiday 2000. Not Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc. In between selling camel hair blazers and lamb's wool sport coats, managers and salesmen at Bank's 117 stores pulled out lists of names sent by corporate headquarters, got on the phone and alerted customers to apparel that was in stock, in their size and on sale. In two months, the stores called 200,000 people. While other national chains missed December sales goals, Hampstead-based Bank set records.

If he was keeping up with industry trends, Timothy Finley would have done the sensible thing.He would have closed the old Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc. sewing factory on North Avenue next year when his workers' union contract expired, sending 409 employees packing, and turned to the Caribbean or Mexico to make 200,000 pairs of pants and 124,000 coats.After all, the nation has lost half its apparel manufacturing jobs -- from 1.5 million in the 1970s to 822,000 today -- to foreign manufacturers as retailers searched for cheap labor, where theoretically one can save about $15 on every pair of pants or jacket.

A global company that manufactures spice concoctions for the food industry is building a new North American headquarters in Hampstead, relocating its operations from Baltimore County. The German-based Fuchs Group, which bought Old Bay creator Baltimore Spice in 1990, will close its two Baltimore County locations, consolidating its business in a new, larger, 200,000-square-foot facility on a 20-acre property in the North Carroll Business Park that is currently farmland. Construction in Carroll County could start by the end of the year, Fuchs North America CEO Dan Cooper said.

John Ciambruschini began learning to handcraft garments as a teenage apprentice to his father in Rome, tailoring made-to-order suits, slacks, dresses and skirts. After immigrating to the United States in 1958 at age 20, Ciambruschini worked at the now-closed Botany 500 suit factory in Philadelphia and Haas Tailoring Co. in Baltimore, where he created custom patterns. After a stint designing men's clothes in San Antonio he returned to Baltimore in the mid-1970s for a job at the Charles Village shop Custom Gentleman Ltd., which he later bought.

Men's Wearhouse's $1.2 billion turnabout offer for Jos. A. Bank Clothiers might have painted the smaller men's retailer into a corner. After all, it was Jos. Bank's idea to combine the two companies with its now-withdrawn $2.3 billion offer for Men's Wearhouse. But Hampstead-based Jos. Bank is taking its time to respond and suggested Thursday that it was exploring other acquisition options. Perhaps Jos. Bank is playing coy and trying to extract a better offer from Men's Wearhouse, given its solid third-quarter results, but maybe it intends to spurn the offer just as Men's Wearhouse snubbed its bid. And maybe, one analyst suggested, it will go back after Men's Wearhouse with a richer offer.

Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc. faces a difficult fight in its $2.3 billion quest to acquire rival Men's Wearhouse, experts say. And that's not only because Houston-based Men's Wearhouse said it doesn't want to sell out to Jos. A. Bank. The struggling Hampstead-based retailer went public Wednesday with its bid to merge the two leading men's tailored apparel chains into a $3.5 billion powerhouse with 1,745 stores. Within hours, Men's Wearhouse rebuffed the offer as inadequate, then adopted a "poison pill" to deter an unfriendly acquisition.

Jos. A. Bank Clothiers faces a growing shareholder revolt as demonstrated by an institutional investor's open letter last week calling for the Hampstead-based retailer to return its growing cash reserve to owners of its stock. BeaconLight Capital LLC, a New York-based investment manager that owns more than 1 percent of Jos. A. Bank, also urged the men's apparel chain to reorganize its board, realign management incentives and drop its strategy of pursuing acquisitions with its cash.

Hampstead-based retailer Jos. A Bank Clothiers will give away business suits to more than 5,000 recently discharged veterans in a promotion with the Gary Sinise Foundation. The "Uniform of Success" promotion, geared toward helping veterans re-enter the workforce, ran during the first week of July at Jos. A. Bank stores nationwide. Customers who bought a suit got two free suits with an additional suit donated to a veteran. The retailer, which operates 606 stores in 44 states and the District of Columbia,  did not say how many suits it raised through the promotion.

Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Shares in the Hampstead-based menswear retailer dropped $2.10 to $24.40 even though the company reported record profits and sales for the most recent fiscal year.

Regular customers of Jos. A. Bank Clothiers are shopping in the chain's stores less often than usual. And this year, consumers have bought fewer items at lower prices than in the past, leading to a sharp drop in first quarter profits for the men's apparel seller. To reverse those trends, the Hampstead-based retailer plans to boost online sales, lure customers who wear big and tall sizes and continue expanding with new full-line and outlet stores, part of a five-step strategy outlined Thursday by Bank CEO R. Neal Black.