Wilsons: Trying to stop the bleeding

August 15, 2008 at 2:05AM

For years, the more than century-old Wilsons has tried to pull itself out of decline. Some notable recent events:

2002: Wilsons closes 135 travel outlets after the stores lose $26.4 million in the post-9/11 economic slump.

2004: Wilsons shuts 111 underperforming stores and cuts 950 jobs. In April, Peninsula Investment Partners of Charlottesville, Va., and two affiliates of Quaker Capital Management of Pittsburgh invest $35 million for 17.9 million shares of stock.

2007: Wilsons gets another infusion from private equity investors. This time, it's for a total of $45 million.

Feb. 15, 2008: Wilsons shutters 160 of its mall stores and announces it will turn the remaining 100 stores into handbag and accessories boutiques called Studio.

July 8: G-III acquires the Wilsons name, website and 116 outlet stores for $22.3 million. Wilson's changes its name to PreVu Inc., including some of its retail stores.

Aug. 4: PreVu Inc. is delisted from trading with Nasdaq.

Aug. 14: PreVu announces it's closing the remaining stores and going out of business.

Sources: Star Tribune archives, Lyle Berman, SEC filings, referenceforbusiness.com

about the writer

about the writer

More from Business

See More
card image
Spencer Platt

The U.S. stock market roared back on Friday, as technology stocks recovered much of their losses from earlier in the week and bitcoin halted its plunge, at least for now.

Attendees of Frostbike made their way through the convention Saturday at the Quality Bike Products campus in Minneapolis. ] (AARON LAVINSKY/STAR TRIBUNE) aaron.lavinsky@startribune.com Frostbike 2016 was held at the Quality Bike Products Campus on Saturday, Feb. 27, 2016 in Bloomington, Minn.
card image