The Children's Place gears up bay presence

By MARK ALBRIGHT

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 14, 2000

A new player is entering the Tampa Bay area market in children's apparel.

The Children's Place opened a store in Tyrone Square Mall on July 26, the first of a planned four-store presence in local malls by next spring.

The chain sells its own private label togs for the 12-and-under set, virtually all of which are imported from Hong Kong, Macau, the Peoples Republic of China, Cambodia and the Philippines. The goods are priced at about 20 to 30 percent less than competitors' but a bit above discount stores.

The Children's Place re-stocks its stores monthly with interchangeable garments around a central color palette. That makes for easier mixing and matching.

Ezra Dabah, 46, who learned the apparel business as an executive at his father's Gitano Group Inc., acquired the Children's Place in 1989 and took the Secaucus, N.J., chain public in 1997. Gitano, an apparel manufacturer and importer, was liquidated after a 1994 bankruptcy filing amid charges of U.S. Customs violations committed in 1991 and 1992. The Gitano name lived on after being purchased by Fruit of the Loom Inc.

With 327 stores, the Children's Place plans to become a national chain and is ambitiously opening 100 stores this year. The company's revenues were $421.5-million in the fiscal year that ended Jan 29.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.