Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Lord & Taylor, no longer in Federated's plans, to be sold

CINCINNATI - Federated Department Stores Inc. said Thursday that it will sell its upscale Lord & Taylor department store chain, deciding the business no longer fits with its expansion strategy for its larger Macy's and Bloomingdale's chains.

"We have concluded that Lord & Taylor does not fit with our strategic focus for building the Macy's and Bloomingdale's national brands," chief executive Terry Lundgren said.

The decision to sell Lord & Taylor was not unexpected. The nation's biggest department store retailer said last year that it would rebrand all stores under the name of Marshall Field's, the famed Chicago retailer, to Macy's this year.

Lord & Taylor, based in New York, operates 55 stores mostly in the Northeast, in addition to Illinois, Virginia, Michigan, Missouri and Florida. The business generated sales of $1.566-billion last year.

In 2003 Lord & Taylor said it would pull out of Florida and the Southeast before its parent company was acquired by Federated. The closing of all 32 stores was supposed to happen over three years as the chain negotiated exits with mall landlords. Mall owners typically provide land and buildings free to some chains as long as they are operated as department stores.

The only remaining Lord & Taylor south of Washington, D.C., is in Florida Mall, a Simon Property Group mall in Orlando. The Lord & Taylor in the Tampa Bay area closed in 2004 after Taubman Centers Inc. bought back the building, which was part of International Plaza, and converted it to a Robb & Stucky furniture store.

Federated said it would account for Lord & Taylor as a discontinued operation in its monthly and quarterly financial statements, which will cut last year's fourth-quarter profit from continuing operations by about 10 cents per share. The retailer said it expects to complete a sale by year-end.

Times staff writer Mark Albright contributed to this report.

[Last modified January 13, 2006, 01:45:18]