Walmart discussed selling clothing brands Bonobos and Modcloth

[BENGALURU] Walmart Inc has discussed the potential sale of its unprofitable clothing brands Bonobos and Modcloth with buyers, online news portal Vox reported  on Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The world's largest retailer bought a bunch of clothing brands including Bonobos and Modcloth in 2017 and Eloquii last year to appeal to younger shoppers in its effort to compete with Amazon.com Inc.

According to Vox's report, all three businesses are unprofitable and the decision to sell the brands comes after Walmart was "unable to turn around the company's economics" in the near term.

Modcloth will likely be sold this year, but Walmart plans to retain Bonobos, after contemplating a sale, the report said.

The report also noted that the retailer is projecting losses of more than US$1 billion for its US e-commerce division in 2019, on revenue of between US$21 billion and US$22 billion.

Walmart was not immediately available for a comment.

Last month the company announced a sweeping overhaul at Jet.com, an online startup it acquired in 2016 for US$3.3 billion, after it failed to live up to the retailer's e-commerce ambitions. 

REUTERS