Talbots to open 12 outlet stores in '09

Talbots Inc. chief executive Trudy Sullivan said yesterday the Hingham clothier has signed leases to open 12 outlet stores next year, including one at the Wrentham Village Premium Outlets. The shops will debut in late spring and feature merchandise priced about 40 percent lower than at its other stores. Talbots, which already has some liquidation stores, plans to open about 30 upscale outlet shops over the next three years.

"We have only just begun on our journey that will clearly take us several years as we reinvent this brand," Sullivan said yesterday at the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce's Women's Network Breakfast in Boston.

Sullivan is trying to turn around the retailer, which has seen its stock plunge and sales drop over the past year. Since coming on board in the summer of 2007, Sullivan has closed the men's and kid's divisions and the business in the United Kingdom, along with cutting at least 10 percent of the staff at the headquarters. Talbots is also trying to sell off its J. Jill division.