CompanyStats

Macy’s
  • HQ: Cincinnati, OH
  • 2008 Revenues: $26.3 billion
  • Employees: 167,000
  • Global: Operates within the U.S., Guam and Puerto Rico
  • Fortune 500: 96

CEOExtra

With nearly 35 years of retailing and fashion experience, Macy’s CEO Terry J. Lundgren recognizes that centralization only works to a point. The styles that appeal to customers in one city don’t necessarily catch on with customers in another. To address those differences, Macy’s is launching the national rollout of a successful 2008 pilot program called “My Macy’s.” About 1,600 new merchandising positions have been added in 69 local markets across the country. These merchants, Lundgren explains, are charged with tailoring the apparel and home goods assortments, services and community relations in more than 800 Macy’s stores to the specific customers who shop each location. By the end of the year, the chief asserts, Macy’s will, “operate and market a renowned national brand called Macy’s while translating that brand in each and every location to the local customer.” The “My Macy’s” program, he says, is also helping energize employees and enabling the company to retain and attract the best talent in retailing.

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Terry J. Lundgren

Terry J. Lundgren

Macy’s

How are you coping with a turbulent marketplace?

Few industries have been hit harder than retailing by the economic fallout from tightened consumer spending. Yet Terry J. Lundgren, chairman, CEO and president of Macy’s Inc. (M), is far from panicked. “The Macy’s brand has been around for 150 years,” says the CEO of the Cincinnati-based company, which reported sales of $24.9 billion in 2008. “We’ve successfully navigated through many economic cycles over six generations.”

“The Macy’s brand has been around for 150 years. We’ve successfully navigated through many economic cycles over six generations.”

Lundgren, who has nearly 35 years of retailing and fashion experience, expects the return of job stabilization and consumer confidence over the next year. In the meantime, the CEO says, the company is putting in place bold strategic moves to cut costs.

At the beginning of 2009, Lundgren announced a significant reorganization of Macy’s into a unified operating structure that he predicts will save $250 million this year and $400 million annually beginning in 2010. Gone are regional Macy’s divisions; instead, key functions such as merchandising, merchandise planning, marketing, human resources and finance are now handled at the corporate level for consistency and efficiency, the CEO says.

“In some ways,” he says, “this turbulent marketplace has spurred us into taking aggressive, decisive action now, instead of making slow, gradual changes that would eventually lead us to where we are today.”