Federated Department Stores
announced on Feb. 11 that it was dismantling its Federated Direct division. But that doesn’t mean the company is shuttering its Bloomingdale’s by Mail catalog or its Macys.com Website. Rather, the two businesses will once again be operated as part of their namesake divisions.
“This is an effort to make sure we have a complete alignment in branding and creative,” says Bloomingdale’s by Mail president Franz Weiglein, who now reports to Bloomingdale’s president Ed Holman and Bloomingdale’s executive vice president of marketing, sales promotion and creative services Tony Spring. Weiglein says no downsizing has taken place with the realignment, and no staff has been laid off.
“There are benefits of being put together again under Bloomingdale’s,” Weiglein says. “Bloomingdale’s is opening more stores in places we haven’t been before—such as Medina, IL; Las Vegas; and Atlanta—and we have [catalog] mailing lists in those areas and can help market those new store openings.” Weiglein hopes to spray inkjet messages on the Bloomingdale’s by Mail catalogs in areas where there are new Bloomingdale’s stores to promote the stores.
Bloomingdale’s by Mail had operated as part of the Bloomingdale’s division until 1999, when Federated bought the Fingerhut Cos. catalogs and formed Federated Direct to oversee all its direct properties. Federated sold Fingerhut and all but one of its catalog subsidiaries, Popular Club Plan, last year.