Report: Zale exploring sale of Piercing Pagoda kiosk business

Dallas -- A Tuesday report by Bloomberg said that Zale Corp. is exploring the sale of its Piercing Pagoda kiosk business to focus on its fine jewelry operations.



Citing three unidentified sources, Bloomberg said that buyout firms including Apollo Global Management LLC are looking at the division. Piercing Pagoda generated more than $226 million in sales for the year ended July 31, and is said to be profitable.



Zale has owned Piercing Pagoda for the last 10 years. It operates about 680 jewelry kiosks in U.S. malls. Revenue for the brand has dropped 9.3% over the past two years, according to the report, but the decline is less than one-third the decreases in the Zales and Gordon’s businesses.