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Macy's picks a new chief for Florida

She hopes to make fashions more upscale without turning away the department stores' regular customers.

By MARK ALBRIGHT
Published July 8, 2005

Julie Greiner, a top Bloomingdale's executive, has been named chairman and chief executive of Macy's Florida division.

She takes control of one of Macy's largest divisions, a Miami organization that tailors the chain's focus and fashion direction to 61 stores scattered across the nation's fourth biggest state.

She arrives three months after Macy's absorbed Burdines, a regional nameplate with a long history, into a national brand owned by Federated Department Stores Inc. In Florida, she'll have less of a distraction than the rest of the parent company, which will spend the next year wrestling with how to integrate the pending purchase of more than 400 May Department Stores into other Macy's and Bloomingdale's divisions.

Instead, Greiner will be directly confronted with stepped-up competition in Florida from Dillard's and JCPenney in the middle market, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom at the high end and Target and Kohl's at the lower to moderate price levels.

In the Tampa Bay area, Federated's market share and store count declined over the past 15 years since the arrival of several new rivals.

Greiner said the difficulty will be in making Macy's Florida fashion offerings more upscale without turning away the century-old department store chain's regulars.

"The challenge is to develop distinctive assortments and measure them against what's right for the Florida lifestyle," said the 51-year-old Greiner in a telephone interview on Thursday.

An executive vice president of stores for Bloomingdale's, Macy's flashier and pricier cousin, for six years, Greiner got credit from her bosses for helping guide Bloomingdale's through a customer service overhaul and a growth spurt.

"I've watched Julie for several years and been impressed with the focus she brought to the transformation of Bloomingdale's," said Susan Kronick, vice chair of Federated.

A California native, Greiner holds a business degree from California State University, Fullerton. In 1975 she began her retailing career as a management trainee at the May company division in Los Angeles.

Greiner replaces Tim Adams, who recently was named chairman and chief executive of Macy's Home Store, where he heads a buying, merchandising and marketing organization that sold about $2.6-billion in home furnishings in 2004.

Mark Albright can be reached at albright@sptimes.com or 727 893-8252.

[Last modified July 8, 2005, 01:02:17]