TLB Talbots (The)

The Talbots, Inc. (NYSE: TLB) today announced the closing of its call center in Hingham, Massachusetts, as part of its organizational restructuring process resulting from the Company's acquisition of The J. Jill Group, Inc. The Hingham center is one of three call centers operated by the Company following its May 2006 acquisition of J. Jill. The Company's two other call centers in Knoxville, Tennessee, and Tilton, New Hampshire, will continue to handle all customer calls for the Talbots and J. Jill brands. The action will result in the reduction of 150 positions in Hingham in the areas of Talbots catalog sales and service, including 59 part-time and 91 full-time positions. All positions in the call center's Corporate Customer Service and Direct Marketing Information Systems areas will remain in the Company's Hingham headquarters. Arnold B. Zetcher, Talbots Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "The decision to close our Hingham call center was difficult but necessary to streamline our operations as part of our integration process with J. Jill and also with increasing numbers of customers choosing to shop directly from our website. We have taken the appropriate measures to facilitate the transition for the affected associates, including providing severance and outplacement services." "With this move, we have completed the anticipated organizational restructuring process directly resulting from our acquisition of J. Jill. Our focus now is on continuing to capture the synergy opportunities between our two businesses as well as on implementing the strategies that will accelerate our growth and strengthen our position as a leading apparel destination for the age 35-plus customer," Mr. Zetcher concluded. Talbots opened a call center operation in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1988 and moved into a new, state-of-the art facility in February 2004. Currently, approximately 300 Talbots associates are employed at the Knoxville facility. J. Jill opened a combined state-of-the art call center and distribution center in Tilton, New Hampshire, in 1998, and employs approximately 120 associates within the call center. The Talbots, Inc. is a leading international specialty retailer and cataloger of women's, children's and men's apparel, shoes and accessories. The Company currently operates a total of 1,300 stores in 47 states, the District of Columbia, Canada and the U.K., with 1,090 stores under the Talbots brand name and 210 stores under the J. Jill brand name. The foregoing may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may be identified by such forward-looking terminology as "expect," "look," "believe," "anticipate," "outlook," "will," "would," "would yield," or similar statements or variations of such terms. All of the "outlook" information (including future revenues, future comparable sales, future earnings, future EPS, and other future financial performance or operating measures) constitutes forward-looking information. Our forward-looking statements involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties as to future events which may or may not occur, including the risk that the J. Jill business will not be successfully integrated, the risk that the cost savings and other synergies from the transaction may not be fully realized or may take longer to realize than expected, the risk that the acquisition will disrupt Talbots or J. Jill's core business, transaction and integration costs, the reaction of Talbots and J. Jill customers and suppliers to the transaction, diversion of management time on merger-related issues, effectiveness of the Company's brand awareness and marketing programs, any different or any increased negative trends in its regular-price or markdown selling, effectiveness of its Internet site, acceptance of the Company's fashions including the Company's 2006 spring and summer fashions, the Company's ability to anticipate and successfully respond to changing customer tastes and preferences and to produce the appropriate balance of merchandise offerings, the Company's ability to sell its merchandise at regular prices as well as its ability to successfully execute its major sale events including the timing and levels of markdowns and appropriate balance of available markdown inventory, any difference between estimated and actual stock option expense, and retail economic conditions including consumer spending, In each case, actual results may differ materially from such forward-looking information. Certain other factors that may cause actual results to differ from such forward-looking statements are included in the Company's Form 10-K (under "Risk Factors") and in other periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on the Talbots website under "Investor Relations" and you are urged to carefully consider all such factors.