Coldwater Creek plans to close its Home catalog and Gallery Web site by this fall and consolidate the merchandise into its core catalogs.
The layoffs will be included in the 20 salaried staff reductions announced recently. The move is part of the company’s consolidation strategy to reduce expenses and improve efficiencies.
Home, a specialty book, accounted for 6.5% of the company’s overall circulation which was reported at 183.5 million for the 12-month period ending March 3, 2001.
The majority of the apparel featured in Home – loungewear and weekend clothing – and selected accessories will be showing up in Natural Elements and North Country. The last catalog will mail in August or September, David Gunter, a spokesperson for Coldwater Creek, said.
“The merchandise that was driving Home over the last several quarters was apparel,” Gunter said. “There are so many efficiencies in taking that apparel assortment and placing it in core titles where it makes sense, especially in this frugal, national economic environment. We’ve been looking at ways to control costs and this is a very strong candidate for that.”
Hard goods, apparel and some jewelry from thegalleyatcoldwatercreek.com will be consolidated into Spirit of the West with a smattering appearing in North Country.
“By consolidating the best merchandise from both of those assortments into existing core titles we can capture approximately 60% of those sales in a much more efficient manner, primarily because we won’t be mailing the Home book,” Gunter said.
Home and Gallery make up a little less than 4% of the company’s total sales, he said. Net sales for fiscal 2000 were $458 million.
On Jan. 10, Coldwater Creek said that it had closed its distribution center in Sandpoint, ID, as part of its consolidation strategy. All of the company’s shipping activity – catalog, Internet and retail — has been concentrated in its 600,000 square-foot facility in Parkersburg, WV. Some 120 employees will lose jobs at the Idaho center. Coldwater Creek is headquartered in Sandpoint.
The company also said that 80 positions will be cut at national retail stores, and two clearance outlet locations will close by March 1. Its CFO Donald Robinson resigned to pursue other opportunities.
Last February, the company cut 160 employees at facilities in Idaho and West Virginia.
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