Following the announcement that Saks Fifth Avenue owner HBC has an agreement to acquire rival Neiman Marcus Group for $2.65 billion, Saks on Wednesday confirmed a shakeup of its operations that will entail an undisclosed number of layoffs.
HBC has already said that once the deal closes it would establish an entity dubbed Saks Global, which combines its Saks Fifth Avenue and Saks Off 5th banners with Neiman Marcus Group’s Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman banners. Its Canadian department store Hudson’s Bay will be its own entity. The transaction has also attracted an investment from Amazon.
“Decisions that impact team members are never easy, but they are necessary to support our future success,” a Saks Global spokesperson said by email Wednesday. “We greatly appreciate our colleagues’ contributions and are supporting them as much as we can through this transition.”
There has already been some change, as Saks Fifth Avenue Chief Operating Officer RJ Cilley left a few days after the announcement to become chief executive officer at HVAC and plumbing startup Voomi Supply. Now Saks is taking “initial steps to establish Saks Global, a technology-powered combination of retail and real estate assets,” including eliminating some roles, the Saks Global spokesperson said Wednesday.
“As part of this, we are bringing together operational functions from across the businesses under one strong leadership team, so that each individual business can better focus on the execution of their respective customer-facing strategies,” the spokesperson said. “Additionally, with Saks Global we are capitalizing on an opportunity to ensure our teams can navigate the current environment while preparing for future opportunities.”
The spokesperson didn’t immediately reply to follow-up questions regarding how many layoffs are planned, and whether more members of the leadership teams would be affected.
Additionally, neither Saks nor HBC responded to questions about whether Saks Global would reunite the banners’ store and e-commerce operations. In 2021, Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks Off 5th and Hudson’s Bay all split up their online and brick-and-mortar businesses as part of a broader push by parent company HBC to attract investment and talent to the digital companies.
Later that year, Neiman Marcus rejected the idea, though it could be revived under the Saks Global umbrella if there remains a split between physical stores and e-commerce at the Saks banners.
Department store Hudson’s Bay reunited its online and offline operations in 2022, HBC confirmed earlier this year.
Correction: In an earlier version of this story, the subtitle misattributed a statement to a Saks Global spokesperson. The subtitle has been updated.
