Neiman Marcus CFO Grimes resigns after 17 months

Dive Brief:

Neiman Marcus CFO Donald T. Grimes resigned from the Dallas-based luxury retailer effective Monday after little more than a year on the job, the Dallas Morning News reports.
The resignation "was not the result of any disagreement regarding any matter" related to Neiman Marcus "operations, policies or practices,” the company said.
Grimes' departure is the latest in a series of recent Neiman Marcus executive shuffles: Last month, Chief Information Officer Michael Kingston left, and earlier this year Chief Marketing Officer Wanda Gierhart announced her departure.

Dive Insight:

Grimes joined Neiman Marcus in June last year and also served as executive vice president and chief operating officer. He was previously CFO at footwear brand Wolverine World Wide.

Neiman Marcus struggled during Grimes' tenure, with a 4.1% decline in its Q4 and fiscal year same-store sales marking its fourth straight quarter of declines. The upscale department store chain also reported a Q4 loss of $407.2 million compared to a loss of $32.9 million in the year-ago period, dragged down by $466.2 million in write-downs tied to the value of assets, including trade names and real estate.

Neiman Marcus' problems are fomenting talk that it may soon be for sale, with speculation that it will be bought up by Saks Fifth Avenue parent Hudson’s Bay Co. Neiman Marcus, which was taken private in 2005 to accomplish a turnaround, filed for an initial public offering last year, but pulled back amid a bleak outlook for luxury retail: Its results in recent quarters make a second IPO attempt unlikely.

Among other challenges, Neiman Marcus is lagging behind a growing "see now, buy now" trend. While several key brands including Burberry and Tommy Hilfiger have made significant changes in their supply chains that allow them to instantly sell designs the moment they’re off the runway, Neiman Marcus hasn’t seen the benefit of that quite yet — if it ever will.

Not all brands have made the move to begin selling styles off the runway, of course, and the instant channels don’t necessarily include department stores. In fact, several brands (including Ralph Lauren, which has been mightily dependent on department store sales for decades) are backing away from those retailers as they continue to suffer sales and traffic declines.