“Zellers CEO rewrites the book on liquidation”
by sabrinarai ~ November 3rd, 2011. Filed under: Uncategorized.
Running 273 stores casually, the CEO of discounter Zellers Inc. (Mark Foote) will be in the midst of Canada’s largest retail liquidation preparing for the most of the stores’ takeovers by Target. In January, Target unveiled its $1.8-billion deal to buy most of Zellers leases and convert them into Target. It was hard for Mr. Foote to keep these outlets running since he knew the end was near. Zellers will provide a different case study to reach shoppers in a new way, including an interactive holiday Facebook campaign.
Mr. Foote, who arrived in 2008, was showing signs of progress for Zellers with estimated annual sales of roughly $4-billion, but for years it has been losing grounds. He is tackling a great challenge and is slashing costs and ramping up inventory levels. This strategy of keeping Zellers profitable will not be easy.
One strategy includes Mr. Foote adding fresh produce to five stores in the city as we read in the article, “Zellers Gets Fresh.” Adding food is a great strategy because “food is a big part of how we get traffic into the store,” Mr. Foote said. This strategy has already been used by a Zeller’s competitor, Wal-Mart.