Anchor Blue Clothing Company

Anchor Blue Inc. was a Corona, California-based clothing retailer which had over 100 stores in the western United States. It generally sold its own Anchor Blue brand name of youth oriented denim, graphic tees and casual clothing.^[1] Sometimes the company was referred to as the Anchor Blue Inc., but their retail clothing chain of stores was labeled as Anchor Blue.

Early history

The Anchor Blue Clothing Company started in the mid-1970s as Miller's Outpost, which itself had originally been called Miller's Surplus.^[2] In the late '90s, the company changed its name to Anchor Blue because they had marketed, distributed, and sold their own line of jeans (for both men and women) and other clothing and accessories in their stores but wanted the chain's name to reflect their own name brand. Up until that time, Miller's Outpost (and subsequently Anchor Blue Clothing Company) were also selling brand names from some of their competitors in the apparel industry. Levi's, Menace, Mecca, and other name brands were also sold but later dropped when Anchor Blue decided to exclusively sell its own Anchor Blue fashion line. During the years that it was known as Miller's Outpost, the retail chain marketed and sold their own urbanwear line, Steel Wing, and their own activewear line. Those two lines have been discontinued.

Most of the Anchor Blue stores were located in enclosed shopping centers.

The company was owned by an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners, a Florida-based investment firm.^[1][3][4]

Bankruptcy

Anchor Blue went through chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2009. During this process they closed over 50 stores, including all their stores in Florida and Georgia. They also sold their sister brand, Levi/Dockers Outlet by Most to Levi's Inc. In August 2010, the company opened its online site for customers to make purchases, after a more than 3 year delay due to poor sales performance.

As of January 5, 2011, Anchor Blue ceased corporate operations.^[5]

Since then, Anchor Blue have advertised their " Going Out of Business" sales. They've tried to sell their products, including store fixtures with discounts up to 70%. On February 17, 2011, Anchor Blue officially closed all stores due to economic struggles.

Fragrance

Anchor Blue perfumes and colognes can still be purchased online. They are available at www.abfragrance.com. Romane Fragrances handles the distribution of the fragrances.

Juniors perfumes include ABU, Bikini Love, Crush, Sinful and Signature. Men's colognes include Anchor Blue, DV8, Unchained, Black by Anchor Blue and Blue by Anchor Blue.

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Karr, Arnold J. (January 12, 2004). "Anchor Blue Gets Buyer, New President". Women's Wear Daily. http://www.wwd.com/notavailable/archive?target=/search/article/11318&articleId=11318&articleType=A&industryKw=search. Retrieved 2006-10-11. ^{[dead link]}
2. ^ Albright, Mark (August 14, 2006). "Anchor Blue to drop in St. Pete". St. Petersburg Times. http://www.sptimes.com/2006/08/14/Business/Anchor_Blue_to_drop_i.shtml/. Retrieved 2006-10-09. 
3. ^ "Sun Capital buys Bachrach Clothing". South Florida Business Journal. February 17, 2005. http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2005/02/14/daily48.html. Retrieved 2006-10-09. 
4. ^ Waters, Jennifer (July 29, 2004). "Target sells Mervyn's for $1.65 billion". MarketWatch.com. http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B20ADE9F2%2DD682%2D4995%2D88CD%2DC5B7535E5CEE%7D&siteid=mktw. Retrieved 2006-10-09. 
5. ^ http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_anchor06.51c4465.html Anchor Blue shuts down corporate operations

As of January 3rd 2011. All exiting of District Managers began as stage 1. Anchor Blue will be shutting down all stores shortly.

References

• Umlauf-Garneau, Elyse (May 2006). "Attitude Check: Anchor Blue sells the West Coast look at prices less-affluent teens can afford". Shopping Centers Today. http://www.icsc.org/srch/sct/sct0506/retail_anchor_blue.php/. Retrieved 2006-10-09. 
• Young, Kristin (April 11, 2002). "Luring Teens with Anchor Blue". Women's Wear Daily. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-85185235.html. Retrieved 2006-10-11. 
• Cuneo, Alice Z. (May 7, 2001). "Private-label line anchors Miller's Outpost relaunch; Retailer expands teen jeans' reach to close the Gap". Advertising Age. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-74414399.html. Retrieved 2006-10-11. 

External links

• Anchor Blue website
• Anchor Blue Fragrance website