Ralph Lauren Shuttering Rugby Stores

Ralph Lauren's plans to close its 14 stand-alone Rugby locations, to include the Georgetown store on Wisconsin Avenue, in 2013, according to Womens Wear Daily.

The announcement came Friday as Ralph Lauren Corp. posted weak, but better than expected second quarter results, according to WWD.

Patch called the Georgetown Rugby shop to inquire about the future of the Wisconsin Avenue store and its adjoining Rugby Cafe. A manager, who was not authorized to speak on the record, said he was just learning about the news himself and had not received any instruction or additional information from corporate.

As Style Bistro explained:

"The official announcement was buried at the bottom of a Q2 report in today's WWD—where Ralph Lauren execs explained they're closing Rugby to 'focus resource on higher growth, more scalable global opportunities with the core Ralph Lauren brand'."