The Men’s Wearhouse, Inc. (MW), Ross Stores, Inc. (ROST): Is it Time to Suit Up with this Retailer?

Versus Competitors

The Men’s Wearhouse, Inc. (NYSE:MW) only has one direct publicly traded competitor in the United States – Jos. A. Bank (NASDAQ:JOSB) Clothiers, which also offers menswear, tailored suits and tuxedos in approximately 556 stores. How do these two companies stack up against each other fundamentally?

Source: Yahoo Finance, March 15

From these metrics, it’s easy to see Men’s Wearhouse’s reason to sell K&G. Since Jos. A. Bank focuses entirely on menswear, it enjoys higher margins and stronger sales.

Since 2010, Jos. A. Bank also introduced its tuxedo rental business through a partnership with Jim’s Formalwear – one of the biggest domestic wholesale distributors of men’s formalwear – to compete with Men’s Wearhouse’s tuxedo rental business.

Jos. A. Bank’s stronger focus on growing in its core business is well reflected in its top and bottom line growth over the past five years.

MW data by YCharts

The Foolish Bottom Line

I don’t see any convincing reasons to follow the herd and buy The Men’s Wearhouse, Inc. (NYSE:MW) right now. Weak same-store sales across all brands, a sale of a non-performing brand that is still in the early stages, and inferior margins to its closest competitor aren’t qualities of a strong investment.

I also think that the company’s optimistic projections for 2013 are a bit high, and investors could be sorely disappointed. Therefore, my apologies, Mr. Zimmer, but I simply “don’t like the way it looks.”

The article Is it Time to Suit Up with this Retailer? originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Leo Sun.

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