Victoria's Secret, Bath & Body Closing Stores; See IL Locations

ILLINOIS —Victoria’s Secret will permanently close about 250 stores in the United States and Canada by the end of this year, parent company L Brands announced this week.

Also slated for closure are 50 Bath & Body Works locations. The news came this week after L Brands posted its quarterly earnings online.

Victoria’s Secret, a popular women’s lingerie retailer, has 1,091 stores in the United States and Canada. L Brands said it will close 235 U.S. Victoria’s Secret and three PINK stores. It also plans to close 13 of its 38 stores in Canada.

While the company has yet to name which stores it plans to close, the Chicago area has 36 Victoria’s Secret locations that could be on the list:

1. Algonquin Commons, 1964 South Randall Rd., Algonquin
2. Cherryvale, 7200 Harrison Ave., Rockford
3. Chicago Premium Outlets, 1650 Premium Outlets, Aurora
4. Chicago Ridge, 321 Chicago Ridge Mall, Chicago Ridge
5. Eastland, 1615 E. Empire St., Bloomington
6. Ford City, 7601 S Cicero Ave., Chicago
7. Fox Valley, 1228 Fox Valley Center, Aurora
8. Geneva Commons, 222 Commons Drive, Geneva
9. Gurnee Mills, 61700 West Grand Avenue, Gurnee
10. Harlem Irving, 4132-E N Harlem Avenue, Norridge
11. Hawthorn, 122 Hawthorn Center, Vernon Hills
12. Lincolnwood Town, 3333 W Touhy Ave., Lincolnwood
13. Louis Joliet 3340 Mall Loop Rd Joliet, IL 60431 (815) 267-3012
14. Market Place, 2000 N Neil Street, Champaign
15. N Michigan Avenue, 734 N Michigan Ave., Chicago
16. North Riverside Park, 7501 W Cermak Road, North Riverside
17. Northbrook Court, 1218 Northbrook Court, Northbrook
18. Northfield Square, 1600 N State Road 50, Bourbonnais
19. Northwoods, 2200 War Memorial Drive, Peoria
20. Oakbrook, 52 Oakbrook Center, Oak Brook
21. Old Orchard, 153 Old Orchard Center, Skokie
22. Orland Square, 328 Orland Square Drive, Orland Park
23. Peru Mall, 3940 Route 251, Peru
24. Promenade at Bolingbrook, 641 East Boughton Road, Bolingbrook
25. Quincy, Broadway & 33rd Street, Quincy,
26. River Oaks, 159th Street & Torrence Avenue, Calumet City
27. Roosevelt Collection, 1138 S Delano Ct., Chicago
28. Shoppes at Grand Praire, 5201 West War Memorial Drive, Peoria
29. Southpark, 4500 16th St., Moline
30. Spring Hill, 1072 Spring Hill Road, West Dundee
31. St. Clair Square, 134 St Clair Square, Fairview Heights
32. University, 1237 E Main Street, Carbondale
33. Water Tower Place, 845 N Michigan Ave., Chicago
34. White Oaks, 2501 Wabash Ave., Springfield
35. Woodfield, 5 Woodfield Mall, Schaumburg
36. Yorktown Center, 157 E Yorktown, Lombard

Illinois also has 12 PINK stores and more than 40 Bath & Body Works stores in Illinois.

In February, L Brands was prepared to sell a majority stake of Victoria’s Secret to Sycamore Partners, a deal that would have spun off the Victoria's Secret brand — made up of Victoria's Secret Lingerie, Victoria's Secret Beauty, and PINK — into a separate, standalone company.

However, the companies agreed to terminate the sale after L Brands was forced to impose furloughs and mass store closures in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Ending the agreement also avoided a lawsuit by Sycamore Partners, which had accused L Brands of breach of contract.

Victoria’s Secret reported net sales of $1.65 billion for the first quarter of 2020, compared with $2.6 billion for the same quarter last year.

In a call with analysts, Interim Victoria’s Secret CEO Stuart Burgdoerfer said the closings will occur over the next several months. Additional closings are anticipated, USA Today reported.

L Brands said in a news release that it "remains committed to establishing Bath & Body Works as a pure-play public company and is taking the necessary steps to prepare the Victoria’s Secret Lingerie, Victoria’s Secret Beauty and PINK businesses to operate as a separate, standalone company."

Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works are the latest in a series of retail closures prompted by dwindling revenue amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Last week, Pier 1 Imports and J.C. Penney both announced the companies would file for bankruptcy. While J.C. Penney plans to close about 240 stores, Pier 1 will close all locations.

Earlier this month, luxury department store Neiman Marcus also filed for bankruptcy after furloughing 14,000 employees and temporarily closing its 43 stores.