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St. Louis Business & Technology News
"When you think Saint Louis, think Saint Louis Front Page," a weekly publication covering the news and events in the greater St. Louis area. 
How To Reach Us:St. Louis Front Page P.O. Box 1354 St. Louis, MO 63188 Voice: 314-771-0200 Fax: 314-771-0300 To submit news, contact: editor@slfp.com To advertise, contact: advertising@slfp.com |
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ST. LOUIS, MO (BUSINESS WIRE), February 10, 2008 - Macy's, Inc. (NYSE:M) has announced new initiatives to strengthen local market focus and enhance selling service which, in combination with the consolidation of three Macy's divisions, is expected to enable the company to both accelerate same-store sales growth and reduce expense. In an announcement, Terry J. Lundgren, Macy's, Inc. chairman, president and chief executive officer, said, "Improving sales and earnings performance requires innovation in engaging our customer more effectively in every store, as well as reducing total costs. We believe the right answer is to reallocate our resources to place more emphasis and talent at the local market level to differentiate Macy's stores, serve customers and drive business. "In essence, we plan to drive sales growth by improving our knowledge at the local level and then acting quickly on that knowledge. These moves will benefit our customers as well as our shareholders," Lundgren added. "In addition, we believe our new strategies will speed up decision making and simplify the process of working with our vendors." For the 13-week fourth quarter of fiscal 2007, Macy's, Inc.'s sales totaled $8.597 billion, down 6.1 percent from total sales of $9.159 billion for the final 14 weeks of 2006. On a same-store basis, the company's fourth quarter sales were down 2.0 percent. This compares with guidance for fourth quarter sales to be in the range of down 2 percent to up 1 percent. Localization Initiatives Called "My Macy's," a localization initiative was developed over the past year based on customer research, as well as input from Macy's store managers, senior division executives, merchandise vendors and industry experts. Its goal is to accelerate sales growth in existing locations by ensuring that core customers surrounding each Macy's store find merchandise assortments, size ranges, marketing programs and shopping experiences that are custom-tailored to their needs. To maximize the results from My Macy's, the company is taking action in certain markets that will: * Concentrate more management talent in local markets, effectively reducing the "span of control" over local stores; * Create new positions in the field to work with division central planning and buying executives in helping to understand and act on the merchandise needs of local customers; * Empower locally-based executives to make more and better decisions. Macy's locations in these markets will be grouped into 20 newly formed districts of about 10 stores (compared with an average of 16 to 18 currently overseen by each regional manger). Districts will be based in cities including Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Portland, Ore., St. Louis, Salt Lake City and Seattle. Each new district will have a manager and a small staff of store merchandisers and planners. These districts will report into their divisions through new regional offices being established in Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis and Seattle. District-based executives will be empowered to make more local decisions about space allocation, service levels and visual merchandising, which the company believes will enhance execution. Additionally, district-based planners will provide market-specific intelligence to division planning offices. More resources also will be provided to local markets for special events and to enhance customer service. A total of approximately 250 new district and region positions will be based in those local markets adopting the new model. This will roughly double the number of management positions in the field in these markets. Merchandise localization will be supported by a series of new systems and technology being rolled out in 2008 to all Macy's divisions (including Macy's Florida) to facilitate more detailed store-level execution and assortment planning. In part, this will allow merchants to more accurately assort each Macy's store with items, brands, garment sizes and colors preferred by customers who shop that specific location. Division Organization Consolidations Effective immediately, the company will begin consolidating its Minneapolis-based Macy's North organization into New York-based Macy's East, its St. Louis-based Macy's Midwest organization into Atlanta-based Macy's South and its Seattle-based Macy's Northwest organization into San Francisco-based Macy's West. The Atlanta-based division will be renamed Macy's Central. All current store locations will remain in place. The consolidation of divisional central office organizations, expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2008, will affect approximately 950 positions at the Macy's North headquarters offices in Minneapolis, 850 positions at the Macy's Midwest headquarters offices in St. Louis, and 750 positions at the Macy's Northwest headquarters offices in Seattle. Executives currently in the Macy's North, Macy's Midwest and Macy's Northwest central organizations will be considered for positions in the new local market organization or for open positions elsewhere in the company. Employees laid off in this process will be provided severance benefits and outplacement assistance. The company's Miami-based Macy's Florida and New-York based Bloomingdale's divisions are not affected by today's announcement.  
The Saint Louis Front Page is owned and maintained by the Moore Design Group for the sole purpose of disseminating news and information about the Metropolitan Saint Louis area. Text or graphics may not be copied, rewritten or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission. For more information, contact editor@slfp.com All rights reserved world wide © 1996 - 2008 Moore Design Group. |
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