Claire's Stores, Inc. Announces First Store Openings In Venezuela & Panama, Expanding Its Global Reach To 36 Countries

CHICAGO, Oct. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Claire's Stores Inc., one of the world's leading specialty retailers of fashionable jewelry and accessories for teens, tweens, and kids, announced the recent opening of the first Claire's stores in both Venezuela and Panama.  The Venezuelan store opened on October 12th and is located in the Sambil Paraguna Mall in Punto Fijo.  The Panamanian store opened on October 27th and is located in the Metro Mall in the city of Panama.  Both Claire's stores are the first of their kind in each country. Claire's Stores Inc. has partnered with Grupo David Enterprises headquartered in Panama as the single franchisee across 16 countries in Latin America. Over time, Claire's Stores Inc. and Grupo David Enterprises expect these countries to present a minimum 100 stores market opportunity.

Claire's Stores Inc. CEO Jim Fielding stated, "The two recent store openings in Venezuela and Panama expand our global reach to 36 countries. We look forward to opening additional stores while entering more markets with our partners at Grupo David."

Company Overview

Claire's Stores, Inc. is one of the world's leading specialty retailers of fashionable accessories and jewelry at affordable prices for young women, teens, tweens and girls ages 3 to 27.  The Company operates through its two store concepts: Claire's^® Globally and Icing^® in North America.  As of October 27, 2012, Claire's Stores, Inc. operated 3,088 stores in North America and Europe.  The Company also franchised or licensed 381 stores in Japan, the Middle East, Turkey, Greece, Guatemala, Malta, Ukraine, Mexico, and India.  More information regarding Claire's Stores is available on the Company's corporate website at http://www.clairestores.com.

Forward-looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" which represent the Company's expectations or beliefs with respect to future events.  Statements that are not historical are considered forward-looking statements.  These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated.  Those factors include, without limitation: changes in consumer preferences and consumer spending; competition; our level of indebtedness; general economic conditions; general political and social conditions such as war, political unrest and terrorism; natural disasters or severe weather events; currency fluctuations and exchange rate adjustments; uncertainties generally associated with the specialty retailing business, such as decreases in mall traffic due to high gasoline prices or other general economic conditions; disruptions in our supply of inventory; inability to increase same store sales; inability to renew, replace or enter into new store leases on favorable terms; increase in our cost of merchandise; significant increases in our merchandise markdowns; inability to grow our store base in Europe or expand our international franchising operations; inability to design and implement new information systems or disruptions in adapting our information systems to allow for expansion into new geographic markets or grow our e-commerce sales; delays in anticipated store openings or renovations; uncertainty that definitive financial results may differ from preliminary financial results due to, among other things, final U.S. GAAP adjustments; results from any future asset impairment analysis; changes in applicable laws, rules and regulations, including changes in federal, state or local regulations governing the sale of our merchandise, particularly regulations relating to the content in our merchandise, general employment laws, including laws relating to overtime pay and employee benefits, health care laws, tax laws and import laws; product recalls; data or security breaches of confidential information; loss of key members of management; increases in the cost of labor; labor disputes; unwillingness of vendors and service providers to supply goods or services pursuant to historical customary credit arrangements; increases in the cost of borrowings; unavailability of additional debt or equity capital; and the impact of our substantial indebtedness on our operating income and our ability to grow.  These and other applicable risks, cautionary statements and factors that could cause actual results to differ from the Company's forward-looking statements are included in the Company's filings with the SEC, specifically as described in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 28, 2012 filed with the SEC on April 4, 2012.  The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.  The historical results contained in this press release are not necessarily indicative of the future performance of the Company.

Additional Information

Note:  Other Claire's Stores, Inc. press releases, a corporate profile and the most recent Form 10-K and Form 10-Q reports are available on Claire's business website at: http://www.clairestores.com.

Contact Information
J. Per Brodin, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Phone: (847) 765-1100, or E-mail, [email protected] 

SOURCE Claire's Stores, Inc.