Federated to sell Lord & Taylor

January 13, 2006

BY SANDRA GUY Business Reporter

Lord & Taylor is up for sale, and its stores may end up as new locations for an expanded Saks Fifth Avenue or another department store, analysts speculated Thursday.

Lord & Taylor's owner, Federated Department Stores, announced Thursday it will sell the 55-store chain so it can focus on its Macy's and Bloomingdale's department stores. The news ended rumors that had circulated for a year-and-a-half that Federated would dispense with the modernized but floundering Lord & Taylor, which has five Chicago area stores.

The Lord & Taylor chain garnered $1.57 billion in sales in 2004, and analysts immediately speculated that it could sell for $745 million after taxes.

The most likely buyers would be private-equity companies flush with cash. Private-equity companies have recently gobbled up Neiman Marcus Group and Toys R Us in separate deals.

Deborah Weinswig of Citigroup Smith Barney speculated that a private-equity buyer could buy Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor, and rename all of the stores Saks Fifth Avenue.

Another analyst who asked not to be named said a smarter pairing would be Lord & Taylor with the upscale Parisian chain of 40 department stores in the South. Parisian is being sold by Saks.

Federated bought the New York-based Lord & Taylor chain as part of its stunning $11.9 billion takeover of the May Department Stores, including Marshall Field's and L.S. Ayres. The consolidation of the country's top two department-store chains, announced a year ago, took effect Aug. 30.

May Department Stores had tried to turn around the Lord & Taylor chain by introducing more fashionable merchandise and closing 32 stores that represented 38 percent of Lord & Taylor's store base but only 19 percent of the chain's total sales.

Federated expects to sell Lord & Taylor this year. Federated CEO Terry Lundgren, the man responsible for renaming Marshall Field's as Macy's, said that although Lord & Taylor didn't fit Federated's focus, it has "a great name, many outstanding locations, an experienced management team and a strong customer following."

Local shoppers have lost two Saks Fifth Avenue stores in the last three years, and could see more closings of Lord & Taylor stores.

After Saks announced last May it would close its Saks Fifth Avenue store at Old Orchard Shopping Center in Skokie, the shopping center proposed tearing down the Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue stores to build an open-air shopping area filled with specialty retailers.

Two years ago, Saks closed its Saks Fifth Avenue store at Oakbrook Center mall in the western suburbs. It was replaced by a Bloomingdale's Home Store

Re: Elder-Beerman. There's a small one in Mattoon, IL which is one town over from Eastern Illinois Univesity where I'm currently in grad. school. It's a nice store, and they seem to have some of the same merchandise CPS does. It's hard to make a direct comparision since the CPS I work at is the third largest in the chain, and this store is about the size of our entire women's department.

We haven't been told much about the takeover. We know that many people in Carsons Credit have lost, or will soon lose, their jobs. I called in for a customer over Christmas, and the credit person point-blank told me she didn't care as her last day would be Jan. 6th.

If any of you are interested, I'll post more about the takeover as soon as I find out more details. Supposedly, we'll hear more after inventory, which is at the end of the month.

I've never been much of a Robinson's-May shopper. But now that they are closing many locations here... holy hell the sale. In the past week I've spent $221 for over $650 with of merchandise.

^^
I'm old enough to remember the good ol' Robinson's of the 1980s. But Robinsons-May was decent for certain things. For instance, I got an apple green sheath dress for $40 that I've worn to all sorts of functions. I need to check things out.

And having been a RHMacyite, who would have thought Macys and Bloomingdales would become one?No Mircle on Christmas anymore.

Next Lord and Taylors is up for Sale!:(

Well, The Beat Goes On!

Why don't they get rid of Marshall Field's instead? That way it can remain Marshall Field's and everyone will be happy.

Although -- is Field's even the same? When I was in Chicago in November, I didn't go shopping, but the Field's ad from the paper was cheesy as hell. I'd guess that the store has gone downhill since Federated bought it -- but I haven't been there for years.

Oh well. I do most of my shopping at Nordstrom because they don't suck.

I actually saw a rather old book in the library I need to check out that was basically about how Macy's has gone in the pooper since Federated bought it.

Macy's out here in CA varies from mall to mall. Some Macy's are great (Bev Center, Sherman Oaks Fashion Square) and some are terrible beyond belief (Santa Monica Mall). Its weird. Its like they have completely different buyers for the same store in the same city.

All the Bloomingdale's out here are nice.

But Nordstroms is the altar I bow at.

As I get the majpr drit, there are certain Names that are going to be kept, and Marshall Fields will be one. But, one has to think of it truelying be the same?

Consolidation is the wave!:confused: Well, I really guess not. Make it or go out of Business.:(


When I was In the Rag Biz. In KC, there was Emery-Bird-Thayer, Wolf Bros. The Jones Store, and some Others, well, the are all gone now.:( The Jones Store is still there but having been taken over, They will now become Macys.

Macys was bought out in The KC Region by Dillards.

The Macy Name was deemed to be the most well known and will be kept.

Marshall Field's is not being kept, it's getting turned into craptastic Macy's.

valkryie, they aren't AS good as they used to be, but they still aren't bad.

Younkers is one of the few "good" department stores in this state, almost anything would be an improvement over what it became after Saks, Inc. bought it out.

I'm glad at least Von Maur's is still a family-owned store.

I'm with valkyrie. Nobody better go messing with my Nordstroms.

Sorry, didnt know, just saying what was reported at one time!

And, The Beat Goes On!

"Old is Out and New is in" so to speak.:(

Cookie Cutter isnt it?:eek:

Yeah, they lied and said it would say. If they mess with the Field's downtown (which everyone here still calls Dayton's) I'm going to be :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

NO! NO! We CANNOT start consolidating every store just for snits and giggles!!

If we don't all start shopping at the Mom & Pop stores (or the Marshall Fields and Dillards), we will be forced to shop at the almighty

DEPARTMENT STORE

HARDWARE STORE

APPLIANCE STORE

SHOE STORE

CAR STORE

FOOD STORE

and eat at

ITALIAN RESTAURANT

SEAFOOD RESTAURANT

FAST FOOD RESTAURANT

FRENCH RESTAURANT

ALL OTHER EUROPEAN RESTAURANT

ALL ASIAN RESTAURANT

I am so freaking sick of the chaining of America! Let's keep chains where they belong - in the car and bedroom!

Now, please excuse me while I go scream for an hour and a half...

LOL!

Is Nordstrom independently owned? I've been shopping there more and more in recent years, and it's going to become my department store of choice once Field's is gone.

I hear ya! May Company , Robisons, and The Broadway

then they merged robisons with may company to get robisons -may an eliminated the boradway

Now we have macys and the one at Victoria gardens just Awesome. I heard from someone at work yesterday that Lancasteer/Palmdale mall is getting a dillards.

The merchandising and financial geniuses who gave us the renaming of so many stores as "Macy's" -- and their restocking with all those Macy's brands -- are now going to cut lots of jobs and try other things. (Sales have been slumping.)

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/stor...4EC41A4585C%7D

(Other sources of business news are carrying essentialy the same story.)

I imagine perfection and customer satisfaction are only a few months away. Of course, it's remotely possible that I could be wrong.

That would be because they SUCK SUCK SUCK!!! The selection has gone into the toilet and the prices have gone up. Even the INC line that I used to love is just horrible now.

When I was in Chicago I saw the used to be Marshall Field's. I also didn't see one single person go in or out of it.

I miss Burdine's and Famous Barr. :(

Nordstrom is owned by Nordstrom, and it has no affiliated or branch-off stores, besides Nordstrom RACK, the clearance store. Many Nordstrom family members still run the company and sit on the Board. It's Seattle's pride and joy.

On the other hand, 600+ people in Seattle lost their jobs this week when Macy's announced it was closing its northwest corporate headquarters. Yet another reason to love Nordstrom.

OH, and for those of you in the northwest, I miss Frederick & Nelson, inventor of FRANGOs and where my aunt used to take my brother and me for Sunday brunch when we were little.

My Mom took a part-time job at Lazarus (she was bored with retirement:p) and has been there for about 6 years now. She started at Lazarus then went to Lazarus-Macys and is now at Macys. The biggest changes she has noticed is that the Macys sale prices are much higher than the sale prices when it was Lazarus (so for example, an item that Lazarus would have on sale for $30 is now $40 as Macys). The regular prices didn't change much, but they don't mark things down as much as they used to.

The one thing she hates is that all Macys employees have to wear all black (before they had to dress nicely but could wear whatever color they wanted). And black washes my Mom out completely. She did joke that she now has plenty of black clothes for funerals! :rolleyes:

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. They hated it here so much, the union filed a grievance:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07200/802832-28.stm

I don't really blame them, because if you're one of the Kaufmann's workers that's been there since around the Hoover administration, black is not going to look that great on you. It reminds me of the 55+ year old woman who worked at the Lancome counter who had to wear the "rock star" black t-shirt when that was their color story - just awful.

^^^
Yeah, my Mom is 70 years old. While I still think she looks wonderful, trendy and fashonable are not exactly words I would use to describe her!

I didn't realize that Kaufmans was union- the old Lazarus was not, so they didn't really have a choice. I think giving everyone a jacket or smock in a certain color to wear over thier clothing would have worked better than having everyone in black.

I don't think the Macy's employees in Washington are made to wear black, but I've never noticed before so now I'm going to have to look the next time I'm in.

They haven't been wearing all black in Idaho, but I haven't been in there for a week or two.

They have to wear black in Connecticut.

We had Hudson's which became Dayton Hudson's which became Marshall Field's which became Macy's. I still call the store Hudson's. I'm old, I don't like change. I don't go in there. I figure it's still the same products that other stores sell but with 30% more markup. I could be wrong, but I don't think so (especially home/kitchen stuff). I remember when my friends and I were all in the "getting married" phase, everybody registered at Hudson's because they took returns so easily. But, people took those registries and bought the products at Service Merchandise because they were the same exact things at less cost. Then, you'd take back all your returns to Hudson's, get the cash, and go BACK to Service Merchandise to buy the stuff you hadn't received but still needed/wanted. It was a good deal.