They bought Chico’s in late 2023 and made it part of their Knitwell Group that includes various other retail brands besides Chico’s such as Loft, Ann Taylor and Talbots. I made this connection while reading the news that Sycamore Partners just announced they are buying Walgreens for $10 billion dollars. (I used to do this kind of research for a living and although I am now retired, I guess my pro researcher mind still works this way.)
In both Chico’s and Walgreens cases, Sycamore bought publicly-traded companies and turned them into privately-owned companies. Among other things, this means Chico’s stock is no longer traded on the stock exchange and the company no longer needs to file financial information with the Federal Trade Commission, which makes it much easier to keep the company’s finances secret.
In fairness to your SM, if she has been with Chico’s for years, she is likely experiencing some major changes in the way the new owner is running the company. It can be a real shock for longtime employees to deal with. For one thing, when private equity buys a company, they usually take measures, sometimes extreme measures, to make that company more profitable. They put a lot of pressure on managers to show bigger profits for the units (stores) they are responsible for. Both regional managers and store managers are likely under extreme pressure to bring more money in, do more with less, etc.or risk losing their jobs. Often layoffs happen after private equity buys a company. And once they make that company lean and mean, private equity often sells the revamped company a few years later.
I understand that you have your issues with your SM. But it is very likely that she is under much more pressure than you realize, especially if she invested years with Chico’s before Sycamore bought them. I’ve seen a lot of people go through this — and it is hard. Of course, SM should not take any of this out on you but maybe cut her a little slack when she seems to be having a particularly bad day.
