Campeau Corp. Will Sell Ann Taylor Chain : Wants to Concentrate on Dept. Store Franchises

Campeau Corp. announced Wednesday that it is getting out of the specialty retailing business altogether and plans to sell the profitable Ann Taylor division of Allied Stores Corp.

“We intend to focus our efforts and attention on the future of our department store franchises,” Allied Chairman John W. Burden III said in a statement.

A source close to Campeau said Allied has already received interest in the chain, which operates 103 upscale women’s clothing stores across the country.

Ann Taylor had 1987 sales of $249 million. Campeau did not announce an asking price for the chain.

Wednesday’s announcement came less than a week after Campeau said it was selling the Filene’s Basement specialty store division of Federated Department Stores Inc. to an investor group. Campeau is in the process of taking over Federated.

Finds It Attractive

Campeau Chairman Robert Campeau also plans to sell two other Federated specialty chains, Children’s Place and Main Street, as well as its Gold Circle discount store chain.

Thomas Tashjian, a retail industry analyst with Seidler Amdec Securities Inc. in Los Angeles, said of Ann Taylor, “It’s actually a gem.”

“It’s very unfortunate that he’s deleting it from his portfolio,” Tashjian said, “but I can understand from the higher (real estate) asset value from department stores that he would want to preserve those and develop that area rather than the lease-oriented Ann Taylor chain.”

Analysts have said that Campeau, a real estate developer, was interested in Allied and Federated because of their real estate holdings. Ann Taylor generally leases its retail space.

Because Ann Taylor is profitable, Robert Campeau did not want to sell it, said Joele Frank, a Campeau spokeswoman. However, she said, Ann Taylor has “different customers, a different real estate base, a different buying structure than the rest of the nine divisions” in Allied and Federated.