SIRN Anyone?
Tuesday March 2, 7:01 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: Sirena Apparel Group, Inc.
The Sirena Apparel Group to Open Online Retail Store on Yahoo! Shopping
Company Also Announces Acquisition of Hang Ten Intimate Apparel License
EL MONTE, Calif., March 2 /PRNewswire/ -- The Sirena Apparel Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: SIRN - news) today announced it has entered into an agreement with Yahoo!® (Nasdaq: YHOO - news) to open an online retail store on Yahoo!® Shopping (http://shopping.yahoo.com), the Web's largest shopping site. Shoppers will be able to access the Sirena Online Store(TM) on Yahoo!® Shopping as well as through any of several transparent hyperlinks to Yahoo!® Shopping in Sirena's own home page.
As part of today's announcement, the Company also reported it has acquired the exclusive license to manufacture and market all of Hang Ten's® intimate apparel lines, and will add Hang Ten® fashions to Sirena's Online Store offerings.
Hang Ten Swimsuit and Intimate Lines to Be Sold Online
The Sirena Apparel Group's Online Store on Yahoo! Shopping will feature Sirena's Rose Marie Reid swimsuit label and selected Hang Ten swimsuit and intimate apparel fashions that will not be available in retail stores. The Company believes its Hang Ten label has the potential to be one of the most recognized swimwear brands to be sold on the Internet. ''Our offering of Hang Ten fashions online is the first of our licensed brands that we will sell over the Internet. We intend to continue actively looking for other brands that we can offer in our Online Store,'' said Maurice ''Corky'' Newman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Sirena Apparel Group. The Online Store will also feature product catalogs, fashion show video clips, sizing tips, and more.
The launch of the Sirena Online Store and Sirena's re-designed home page (www.sirenapparel.com) is expected to occur on April 1, 1999.
Presence on Yahoo! Shopping
''Yahoo!'s extensive global audience will help us significantly strengthen our Internet presence,'' said Mr. Newman. ''We believe that Sirena's new venture on Yahoo! Shopping will help establish Sirena as a leading apparel e-tailer with well-recognized brands that are sold over the Net. We expect to merchandise and sell products on the web as retailers are doing, but with substantially stronger margins on products that we exclusively sell online. We expect our growing e-commerce presence to contribute to increases in both revenue and profitability,'' added Newman.
''Yahoo! has the world's largest search engine, which will allow us to benefit from their marketing and promotional efforts while supplementing them with our own,'' said Adam Sullivan, Vice President of Management Information Systems for The Sirena Apparel Group, Inc.
''Sirena will have total control over the look, feel and functionality of our Online Store on Yahoo! Shopping. At the same time, Yahoo! Shopping has the most complete set of tracking tools of any online store system, including customer origin, what consumers search for, and consumer buying habits. The Yahoo! Shopping system also provides comprehensive statistics on information such as page views, visits, sales volume, and conversion rate, for any time period. We believe that Yahoo!'s 'shopping basket' is the most sophisticated in the market today. Yahoo!'s online shopping system supports both sale pricing and quantity discounts. It will recalculate unit price and subtotal in real time as quantities change and it will support cross-selling when a customer submits an order by suggesting related items and accessories. Yahoo!'s online stores can handle over 5,000 completed orders per hour, and its database export feature will let us download orders into our database or spreadsheets with only one click,'' remarked Mr. Sullivan.
Acquisition of Hang Ten Intimate Apparel License
''The Hang Ten intimate apparel license further reinforces our strategy for intimate apparel to provide a strong, year-round business and thus help balance the seasonal nature of our swimwear business. Hang Ten is a well-established brand name and has been a valuable addition to Sirena's swimwear division. The extension of Hang Ten into intimate apparel is the next logical step in developing this label. This extension, combined with potential licensing agreements that we intend to develop, are expected to provide new revenue streams with higher margins as we continue to expand The Sirena Apparel Group,'' concluded Mr. Newman.
The Sirena Apparel Group, Inc. is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of branded and private-label swimwear, intimate apparel and resortwear under well-recognized brands that include Anne Klein, Liz Claiborne, Elisabeth, Sirena, Rose Marie Reid, Hang Ten, and Jezebel.
Statements in this release that are not historical may be deemed forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Act of 1995. Although The Sirena Apparel Group, Inc. believes the expectations reflected in any forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that its expectations will be attained. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from The Sirena Apparel Group's expectations include general economic and industry conditions, consumer response to Sirena's website and Online Store, the continued viability and consumer acceptance of Yahoo!'s online shopping system, the ability to maintain existing licenses and obtain new licenses, the success of Sirena's existing licensing arrangements, competition within the apparel industry, and other risks detailed from time to time in Sirena Apparel Group's SEC reports, including Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on form 8-K and Annual Reports on Form 10-K.
SOURCE: Sirena Apparel Group, Inc.
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