Crafts retailer Michaels to fold Aaron Brothers into main stores

GaryPageau ,

Michaels Companies will shutter 94 Aaron Brothers framing and art supplies stores, planning to make Aaron Brothers a “store-within-a-store” within its 1,300 craft stores in the United States and Canada.

According to its quarterly earnings report, the company will rebrand its “Framerspointe.com” custom-framing website to AaronBrothers.com.

In fiscal 2017, Aaron Brothers net sales totaled approximately $110 million and had no material impact on the Company’s operating income. The Company expects the after-tax cost of implementing these changes will be in the range of $37 million to $42 million. The Company anticipates the vast majority of the cost will be recognized in the first quarter of fiscal 2018. The Company expects the after-tax cash impact of the changes to be minimal.

Michaels acquired then-71 store retailer Aaron Brothers in 1995.