Markdown poster child: I’d do it again
With the luxury of hindsight, Saks Chief Executive Stephen Sadove said he wouldn’t hesitate to repeat the big markdowns of the 2008 holiday season if faced with the same tough environment that made the retailer the poster child of recessionary sales.
“It was the right thing to do to generate the cash,” Sadove said at the Reuters Global Luxury Summit in New York.
The Uneducable American Male
Coach’s Lew Frankfort has given up trying to teach American men about fashion, but he still sees opportunity for expanding sales to a male clientele.
“I believe the American male is largely uneducable,” Coach Chairman and CEO Frankfort said at the Reuters Global Luxury Summit in New York.
“We need to focus on the segment of males that have real discerning taste. But I can also say that even the undiscerning American male is a smart consumer: that person is looking for a product that is durable, that is classic, that can stand the test of time and that’s what our products do,” Frankfort said.
Sales of Coach’s man-bags, wallets and other accessories represent 5 percent of its total take, and that is one area where the company is trying to build growth. At a test store for men only, on Bleecker Street in Manhattan, it has seen sales results run at about triple its own expectations, Frankfort said.
“There’s a lot of appetite among the discerning male for quality accessories made out of excellent materials that are stylish. … In North America, the male consumer remains heavily utilitarian-driven, replacement-oriented, value-based. There are discerning males in Boise, Idaho. I don’t mean to suggest there aren’t.”
(Photo of Frankfort/Reuters)
Candy firm Farley’s & Sathers on the block-sources
PHILADELPHIA/NEW YORK, May 26 (Reuters) – Farley’s &
Sathers Candy Co Inc, the maker of Brach’s, Jujyfruits, and Now
and Later candies, has hired investment bankers to help it find
a buyer, sources familiar with the situation said on
Wednesday.
Farley’s & Sathers has hired Goldman Sachs to help it
explore strategic options, sources said.
UHS nears buy of Psych Solutions, beats Bain – source
PHILADELPHIA/NEW YORK, May 16 (Reuters) – Mental health
facilities operator Psychiatric Solutions Inc <PSYS.O> is close
to being acquired by Universal Health Services Inc <UHS.N> in a
cash deal of nearly $2 billion, sources said on Sunday.
Hospital operator Universal Health is to pay $33.75 a share
in cash, one of the sources briefed on the matter said.
Mega-buyouts could return soon
NEW YORK/PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – The mega-leveraged buyout may be on the way back.
Large leveraged buyouts have been pretty much extinct since the summer of 2007, when the financial crisis halted most financing for big deals, banks were left stuck with debt and the economy was on the verge of melting down.
Restaurant dealmaking hits two-year high
PHILADELPHIA/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Restaurant dealmaking is heating up again with the start of a consumer spending recovery and greater access to capital that has whetted private equity firms’ appetite after a two-year fast.
CKE Restaurants Inc <CKR.N>, the owner of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr fast-food chains, last week accepted a $694 million bid from Apollo Management <APOLO.UL> and terminated a lower-priced offer from Thomas H. Lee Partners.
“Lightning” Bolt plans to slow down for a change
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – After spending the past few seasons running at lightning speed, sprint king Usain Bolt wants to spend some time in the slow lane.
With no Olympics or world championships this year, the Jamaican can ease off his assault on the record books.
Athletics-”Lightning” Bolt plans to slow down for a change
PHILADELPHIA, April 23 (Reuters) – After spending the past
few seasons running at lightning speed, sprint king Usain Bolt
wants to spend some time in the slow lane.
With no Olympics or world championships this year, the
Jamaican can ease off his assault on the record books.
The distressed market has Alzheimer’s
The recent positive signals in the economy may be misread and cloud people’s memories of the financial crisis, restructuring experts said at the Tulane Corporate Law Institute in New Orleans.
“The positive signals we see have led economists to say the recession is over even though the mortgage delinquency rate is still climbing,” said Barry Ridings, managing director and vice chairman at Lazard Freres.
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