Ascena Retail Group history

Justice, which is aimed at girls between ages 7 and 14, is the successor of Limited Too, originally launched in 1987 by The Limited.

In 2005, Ascena Retail Group acquired Maurices Inc. from American Retail Group.

Limited Too changed its name to Tween Brands in 2008, and the company had almost completely converted its remaining Limited Too stores to Justice stores at the time of the Ascena acquisition.

In 2009, Ascena Retail Group expanded into the girls' clothing market by purchasing Tween Brands, the owner of the Justice chain of 891 stores.

On January 1, 2011, The Dress Barn, Inc. reorganized, with each of the retail operating brands becoming subsidiaries of ascena retail group, inc., or ascena.

In 2012, Ascena Retail Group acquired Charming Shoppes, which was the parent holding company for Lane Bryant, Cacique and Catherines Plus, for $900 million.

Its 2015 acquisition of Ann, Inc., owner of the Ann Taylor and Loft chains, made it one of the country’s largest apparel retailers—and one of the most dependent on the health of mall real estate, with 5,000 stores, most of them in shopping malls.

In 2017, just two years after the Ann Taylor acquisition, it was obvious that Ascena had too many stores and too few customers.

On May 1, 2019, David Jaffe stepped down as Ascena’s CEO and as chairman of the board after a 27-year tenure, although he retained a non-chair board seat.

On March 9, before Covid-19 was declared a national emergency, Ascena reported that comparable sales for the second quarter of 2020, which ended February 1, and included the holiday season, were down 2%, and the operating loss was $140 million, much of which was attributed to the Dressbarn shutdown.