Warnaco Announces Ratings Outlook Revision to ``Positive'' by Moody's Investors Service

  
    
  
  
    
      The Warnaco Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: WRNC) and its wholly owned subsidiary 
      Warnaco Inc. announced today that Moody’s 
      Investors Service (“Moody’s”) 
      issued a press release revising Warnaco’s 
      long-term credit rating outlook to positive from stable. Moody’s 
      affirmed Warnaco’s Ba3 corporate family 
      rating, Ba1 senior secured debt rating and B1 senior unsecured debt 
      rating.
    
    
      ABOUT WARNACO
    
    
      The Warnaco Group, Inc., headquartered in New York, is a leading apparel 
      company engaged in the business of designing, marketing and selling 
      intimate apparel, menswear, jeanswear, swimwear, men's and women's 
      sportswear and accessories under such owned and licensed brands as 
      Warner's®, Olga®, 
      Lejaby®, Body Nancy Ganz®, 
      Speedo®, Anne Cole®, 
      Cole of California® and Catalina® 
      as well as Chaps® sportswear and denim, Ocean 
      Pacific® swimwear, Nautica® 
      swimwear, Michael Kors® swimwear and Calvin 
      Klein® men's and women's underwear, men’s 
      and women’s bridge apparel and accessories, 
      men's and women's jeans and jeans accessories, junior women's and 
      children's jeans and men’s and women's 
      swimwear.
    
    
      FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
    
    
      The Warnaco Group, Inc. notes that this press release and certain other 
      written, electronic and oral disclosure made by the Company from time to 
      time, may contain forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to 
      the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform 
      Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements involve risks and 
      uncertainties and reflect, when made, the Company's estimates, 
      objectives, projections, forecasts, plans, strategies, beliefs, 
      intentions, opportunities and expectations. Actual results may differ 
      materially from anticipated results or expectations and investors are 
      cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. 
      Statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking 
      statements. These forward-looking statements may be identified by, among 
      other things, the use of forward-looking language, such as the words 
      "believe," "anticipate," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," 
      "project," "scheduled to," "seek," "should," "will be," "will continue," 
      "will likely result," or the negative of those terms, or other similar 
      words and phrases or by discussions of intentions or strategies.
    
    
      The following factors, among others and in addition to those described 
      in the Company's reports filed with the SEC (including, without 
      limitation, those described under the headings "Risk Factors" and 
      "Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Disclosure," as such disclosure may 
      be modified or supplemented from time to time), could cause the 
      Company's actual results to differ materially from those expressed in 
      any forward-looking statements made by it: economic conditions that 
      affect the apparel industry; the Company's failure to anticipate, 
      identify or promptly react to changing trends, styles, or brand 
      preferences; further declines in prices in the apparel industry; 
      declining sales resulting from increased competition in the Company’s 
      markets; increases in the prices of raw materials; events which result 
      in difficulty in procuring or producing the Company's products on a 
      cost-effective basis; the effect of laws and regulations, including 
      those relating to labor, workplace and the environment; changing 
      international trade regulation, including as it relates to the 
      imposition or elimination of quotas on imports of textiles and apparel; 
      the Company’s ability to protect its 
      intellectual property or the costs incurred by the Company related 
      thereto; the Company’s dependence on a 
      limited number of customers; the effects of consolidation in the retail 
      sector; the Company’s dependence on license 
      agreements with third parties; the Company’s 
      dependence on the reputation of its brand names, including, in 
      particular, Calvin Klein; the Company’s 
      exposure to conditions in overseas markets in connection with the Company’s 
      foreign operations and the sourcing of products from foreign third-party 
      vendors; the Company's foreign currency exposure; the Company’s 
      history of insufficient disclosure controls and procedures and internal 
      controls and restated financial statements; unanticipated future 
      internal control deficiencies or weaknesses or ineffective disclosure 
      controls and procedures; the effects of fluctuations in the value of 
      investments of the Company’s pension plan; 
      the sufficiency of cash to fund operations, including capital 
      expenditures; the Company's ability to service its indebtedness, the 
      effect of changes in interest rates on the Company's indebtedness that 
      is subject to floating interest rates and the limitations imposed on the 
      Company's operating and financial flexibility by the agreements 
      governing the Company's indebtedness; the Company’s 
      dependence on its senior management team and other key personnel; 
      disruptions in the Company's operations caused by difficulties with the 
      new systems infrastructure; the limitations on purchases under the 
      Company's share repurchase program contained in the Company's debt 
      instruments, the number of shares that the Company purchases under such 
      program and the prices paid for such shares; the Company’s 
      inability to achieve its strategic objectives, including gross margin, 
      SG&A and operating profit goals, as a result of one or more of the 
      factors described above or otherwise; the failure of acquired businesses 
      to generate expected levels of revenues; the failure of the Company to 
      successfully integrate such businesses with its existing businesses (and 
      as a result, not achieving all or a substantial portion of the 
      anticipated benefits of such acquisitions); and such acquired businesses 
      being adversely affected, including by one or more of the factors 
      described above and thereby failing to achieve anticipated revenues and 
      earnings growth.