Melanie Kletter NEW YORK -- Rexm..

REXMODA CONSIDERS CLOSING

Byline: Melanie Kletter

NEW YORK — Rexmoda, the company that owns the Tempesta and Gruppo Americano brands, is scaling down and possibly contemplating shutting its doors.
The company, which has been only operating the Tempesta line for the last few seasons, has been slowly laying off employees, WWD learned Monday.
Sheldon E. Grossman, the company’s president and chief operating officer, said through a spokeswoman: “No decision has been made yet to close the company. The company is scaling back its operations and reducing overhead. Every effort is being made to find additional funding for the company to move forward.”
Grossman joined Rexmoda this year, succeeding Joseph Greco, who resigned as president, and Edward M. Jones, who had been chief executive officer.
Rexmoda was formed in mid-1998 when Jones and David Peipers, then principals at Segrets Inc., acquired certain assets of Mezzanotte Design Ltd., a privately held company that marketed Gruppo Americano and other lines. Later that year, Rexmoda, operating as a wholly owned subsidiary of Segrets, relaunched the Tempesta contemporary label with a focus on knitwear.
In 1999, Liz Claiborne purchased an 84.5 percent stake in Segrets, and Jones later resigned from running that business.
Tempesta did about $12 million in its heyday but sales have been hovering around $8 million, according to sources.
Early this year, the company had a management shakeup when Jones and Greco left the firm along with Mark Groeker, who had designed the Gruppo Americano bridge line. Since then, the company has only been operating the Tempesta business.
Tempesta did book spring product and showed its spring merchandise at the Coterie show, but company executives did not return calls to determine whether products are being shipped.