West Bridgewater, MA–Slumping sales have led Brylane subsidiary Chadwick’s of Boston to slash 300 jobs—or 20% of Chadwick’s work force–in its West Bridgewater and Taunton, MA, facilities.
“We’re reducing our work force to keep our costs in line with demand,” says Brylane president/CEO Russell Stravitz. “The catalog/retail business has slowed down, and it looks like it will be challenging for at least the foreseeable future. We’re working toward maintaining our efficiency so that we can have a profitable Chadwick’s business.”
Chadwick’s will begin by offering cash and other incentives to encourage workers to resign. If not enough employees volunteer to resign, the off-price apparel cataloger will follow with layoffs.
Stravitz says that he has no plans for job cuts at other Brylane divisions “for the moment. Business will obviously get better, and we have many initiatives under way. But this was the one spot we needed to work on now.” Brylane’s other titles include home decor title Brylane Home and women’s apparel books Lerner’s and La Redoute.