The Talbots, Inc. to Present at Bear Stearns Retail, Restaurants and Apparel Conference

Business Wire, Feb 26, 2002

Business Editors

HINGHAM, Ma.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 26, 2002

The Talbots, Inc. (NYSE: TLB) today announced that Ed Larsen, Senior Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer and members of the senior management team will deliver a presentation on behalf of the Company at the Bear Stearns Eighth Annual Retail, Restaurants and Apparel Conference.

The presentation is scheduled for Thursday, February 28, 2002 at 9:00 a.m. local time at Bear Stearns World Headquarters in New York.

The audio portion of the presentation will be webcast live and archived for a period of 2 months and is available to the general public. To access the audio portion of the presentation, log onto http://www.talbots.com/about/ and click on Investor Relations.

Talbots is a leading national specialty retailer and cataloger of women's classic apparel, shoes and accessories. The Company currently operates 802 stores - 442 Talbots Misses stores, including 19 Talbots Misses stores in Canada and five Talbots Misses stores in the United Kingdom; 204 Talbots Petites stores, including one Talbots Petites store in Canada; 39 Talbots Accessories & Shoes stores; 59 Talbots Kids stores; 35 Talbots Woman stores; and 23 Talbots Outlet stores, including one Talbots Outlet store in Canada and one Talbots Outlet store in the United Kingdom. Its catalog operation circulated approximately 57 million catalogs worldwide in fiscal 2001. Talbots on-line shopping site is located at www.talbots.com.

The referenced presentation may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The statements may be identified by such forward-looking terminology as "expect," "look," "believe," "may," "will," "intend," "plan," "target," "goal" and similar statements or variations of such terms. The specialty apparel retail business is an evolving and highly competitive marketplace and such forward-looking statements may involve material known and unknown risks and uncertainties as to future events which may or may not occur, including levels of sales, effectiveness of the Company's brand awareness and marketing programs, effectiveness and profitability of new concepts, effectiveness of its new e-commerce site, store traffic, acceptance of Talbots fashions, appropriate balance of merchandise offerings, timing and levels of markdowns, and retail economic conditions including the impact on consumer spending and consumer confidence from a slowing economy, as well as the impact of a highly promotional retail environment, and, in each case, actual results may differ materially from such forward-looking statements. Certain other factors that may cause actual results to differ from such forward-looking statements are included in the Company's Current Report on Form 8-K dated October 30, 1996 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (a copy of which may also be obtained from the Company at 781-741-4500) as well as other periodic reports filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission and you are urged to consider such factors. In light of the uncertainty inherent in such forward-looking statements, you should not consider their inclusion to be a representation that such forward-looking matters will be achieved. The Company assumes no obligation for updating any such forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting such forward-looking statements.