Filed under: Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Penney (J.C.) (JCP), Polo Ralph Lauren’A’ (RL)

Today’s Wall Street Journal has an article about the cost-cutting measures going on retailer, JC Penney (NYSE: JCP). The article, essentially an interview with CEO and Chairman, Myron “Mike” Ullman III, details Ullman’s changing of gears, from aggressive store expansion and on the internet growth to scaling back in the face of a looming recession.

The CEO is expected to announce this day plans to merge the buying and marketing operations for store and on the internet sales, slicing as many as 200 jobs.

In the article, Ullman says he may scale back store expansion over the next two years.

Getting more of the consumer’s wallet

Ullman says, “Half of the families in the U.S. shopped with us at least once last year. But we only get 7% of their spending. So, our biggest opportunity in the downturn is to make every visit they make to our store, World wide web or catalog more productive by offering more innovation.”

Expanding product lines

Ullman says that Penny’s is still planning to launch its much vaunted new product line, American Living, with Polo Ralph Lauren (NYSE: RL). “We think it’s a billion-dollar idea…American Living is J.C. Penney.’”

Ullman has been the conductor of a growing retail orchestra. While 2007 was a tough year for the retailer, JC Penny has turned its stores around, its product assortment has been refreshed, and Ullman seems to have a handle on where the consumer and market is going.

2008 should prove to be a pivotal year for this retailer.

Zack Miller is the Managing Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund.

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I Don’t Believe in Imaginary Property writes “Apparently, the participants in the U.S. ‘Cyber Storm’ war games are familiar with the Kobayashi Maru, because some of them tried to cheat by hacking the games themselves. They also prepare for some very interesting scenarios. Among other things, the organizers are worried about having too many people on the ‘No Fly’ list show up at an airport, finding ‘mystery liquids’ in the subway, and having bloggers reveal the classified location of railcars with hazardous materials. The Department of Homeland Security has already examined the results of the games, and plans to hold ‘Cyber Storm 2′ in March.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Filed under: Earnings reports, Good news, Competitive strategy

The separation of the company into a consumer products company, Alberto-Culver Company (NYSE: ACV), and a beauty supply distribution company, Sally Beauty Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SBH), is complete. Most of its restructuring costs are behind it. The company has shut excess production facilities, instituted a more efficient inventory management system, and introduced a more favorable product mix favoring higher-profit margin items. As a result, the revamped Alberto-Culver Company returned to profitability in 1Q2008.

Net sales increased 14% to $400 million. Earnings from continuing operations increased a whopping 60% to $48.3 million. 1Q2008 net earnings were $30.9 million, much superior than 1Q2007 net loss of $5.9 million. Most importantly, there were actually EPS of $0.29, a far cry from zero EPS in 1Q2007. Given the good 1Q2008 results, Alberto-Culver upped its dividend payout 18% to $0.065 per share. The stock closed recently at $26.76, up $0.86 or 3.32%.

Patient value investors might want to take a look at Sally Beauty Holdings Inc., the spin off company. The stock has struggled recently. It currently trades at just over $8 per share but has a lot of room for growth potential.

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Filed under: Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Penney (J.C.) (JCP), Polo Ralph Lauren’A’ (RL)

Today’s Wall Street Journal has an article about the cost-cutting measures going on retailer, JC Penney (NYSE: JCP). The article, essentially an interview with CEO and Chairman, Myron “Mike” Ullman III, details Ullman’s changing of gears, from aggressive store expansion and online growth to scaling back in the face of a looming recession.

The CEO is expected to announce today plans to merge the buying and marketing operations for store and on the web sales, cutting as many as 200 jobs.

In the article, Ullman states he may scale back store expansion over the next two years.

Getting more of the consumer’s wallet

Ullman states, “Half of the families in the U.S. shopped with us at least once last year. But we only get 7% of their spending. So, our biggest opportunity in the downturn is to make each visit they make to our store, Internet or catalog more productive by offering more innovation.”

Expanding product lines

Ullman states that Penny’s is still planning to launch its much vaunted new product line, American Living, with Polo Ralph Lauren (NYSE: RL). “We think it’s a billion-dollar idea…American Living is J.C. Penney.’”

Ullman has been the conductor of a growing retail orchestra. While 2007 was a tough year for the retailer, JC Penny has turned its stores around, its product assortment has been refreshed, and Ullman seems to have a handle on where the consumer and market is going.

2008 should prove to be a pivotal year for this retailer.

Zack Miller is the Managing Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund.

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willdavid writes “Paul McDougall reports in InformationWeek on Microsoft’s new on the internet comic. The Heroes Happen Here comic strips are being created by Jordan Gorfinkel, a former DC Comics editor who helped revitalize the Batman series. ‘Tech workers who in the middle of the night fix a downed server or take on a personal virus don’t really have astonishing powers. It just seems that way. But a new comic book has debuted in which IT pros literally are superheroes. The daily Web comic, called Heroes Happen Here, features tech savvy crime fighters like Lord Firewall, who “stands between chaos and order” and says things like “begone vermin!”‘” And because it’s never simple, in order to read the archives of the comic you’re going to need to install Microsoft’s Silverlight.

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I Don’t Believe in Imaginary Property writes “Apparently, the participants in the U.S. ‘Cyber Storm’ war games are familiar with the Kobayashi Maru, because some of them tried to cheat by hacking the games themselves. They also prepare for some very interesting scenarios. Among other things, the organizers are worried about having too many people on the ‘No Fly’ list show up at an airport, finding ‘mystery liquids’ in the subway, and having bloggers reveal the classified location of railcars with perilous materials. The Department of Homeland Security has already examined the results of the games, and plans to hold ‘Cyber Storm 2′ in March.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Filed under: Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, eBay (EBAY)

In one of the largest customer-oriented changes I’ve seen on eBay, Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) in quite some time, the world’s largest online auction house will no longer grant negative or neutral” customer feedback” ratings to be left by auction sellers on the accounts of auction buyers.

The thinking goes like this: a buyer may be afraid of leaving negative feedback on an auction for fear of the seller retaliating by leaving negative feedback themselves.

Envision this: you buy an item from an eBay seller and that package arrives with a product significantly different than what was advertised. You fulfilled your end of the bargain; the seller has not. If you leave negative feedback for the transaction, the seller may come back at you with an inappropriate feedback rating. Thus, both parties might not leave feedback at all — and that’s not what builds trust in the eBay community, right?

The changes won’t happen until this coming Might, and current feedback ratings for both buyers and sellers will be based on a 12-month rolling average instead of a “lifetime” rating, which seems more appropriate. Perhaps changes like these — which seem to come as a response to customer demand — will help stem the tide of nastiness some eBay customers have had recently about the auction company.

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Filed under: Earnings reports, Good news, Competitive strategy

The separation of the company into a consumer products company, Alberto-Culver Company (NYSE: ACV), and a beauty supply distribution company, Sally Beauty Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SBH), is complete. Most of its restructuring costs are behind it. The company has shut excess production facilities, instituted a more efficient inventory management system, and introduced a more favorable product mix favoring higher-profit margin items. As a result, the revamped Alberto-Culver Company returned to profitability in 1Q2008.

Net sales increased 14% to $400 million. Earnings from continuing operations increased a whopping 60% to $48.3 million. 1Q2008 net earnings were $30.9 million, much better than 1Q2007 net loss of $5.9 million. Most importantly, there were actually EPS of $0.29, a far cry from zero EPS in 1Q2007. Given the good 1Q2008 results, Alberto-Culver upped its dividend payout 18% to $0.065 per share. The stock closed recently at $26.76, up $0.86 or 3.32%.

Patient value investors may want to take a look at Sally Beauty Holdings Inc., the spin off company. The stock has struggled recently. It currently trades at just over $8 per share but has a lot of room for growth potential.

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I Don’t Believe in Imaginary Property writes “Apparently, the participants in the U.S. ‘Cyber Storm’ war games are familiar with the Kobayashi Maru, because some of them tried to cheat by hacking the games themselves. They also prepare for some very interesting scenarios. Among other things, the organizers are worried about having too many people on the ‘No Fly’ list show up at an airport, finding ‘mystery liquids’ in the subway, and having bloggers reveal the classified location of railcars with dangerous materials. The Department of Homeland Security has already examined the results of the games, and plans to hold ‘Cyber Storm 2′ in March.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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I Don’t Believe in Imaginary Property writes “Apparently, the participants in the U.S. ‘Cyber Storm’ war games are familiar with the Kobayashi Maru, because some of them tried to cheat by hacking the games themselves. They also prepare for some very interesting scenarios. Among other things, the organizers are worried about having too many people on the ‘No Fly’ list show up at an airport, finding ‘mystery liquids’ in the subway, and having bloggers reveal the classified location of railcars with hazardous materials. The Department of Homeland Security has already analyzed the results of the games, and plans to hold ‘Cyber Storm 2′ in March.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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