The rest of Chicago may have been thanking El Nino for those 55-degree January days last winter, but not the executives at Evans Inc.
The Chicago-based fur and apparel chain was having a strong fiscal year until the weather warmed up in January and February, and women stopped buying furs.
That turned a prospective 1998 profit into an $835,000 loss. Unfortunately, losing money isn’t anything new for Evans, which has been battered by economic downturns, an industry price war and the anti-fur movement.
But Evans CEO Robert K. Meltzer believes the tide has turned: Fur is in again. Some 180 designers now work with fur, compared with 45 more than a decade ago. Elle magazine had fur on its July cover, and Vogue used fur on the cover twice last year.
“The upper end of the fur business is great,” Meltzer said after the company’s brief annual meeting this week, attended by only a handful of shareholders who weren’t directors, employees or auditors.
So a little upscale is where Evans is going. It has dropped some basic mink coats in favor of more fashionable sheared minks that retail for about $5,000. And last year, Evans purchased the fur trademark of Maximilian and took over the operation of 17 salons under that name in Bloomingdale’s stores.
Signs already are appearing that the more upscale strategy is paying off. First-quarter revenue was up 24 percent, and fur sales in July were double those last year.
Of course, July is hardly a big fur month. But Meltzer believes the momentum will carry over into the critical fall and winter selling seasons.
Now all the company needs is normal winter weather. Not too warm, not a lot of snow. Just cold enough to make a mink coat look comfy.
Field’s fights back: Aiming to keep a Macy’s store out of Block 37, Marshall Field’s and parent Dayton Hudson Corp. have hired politically savvy public relations firm Jasculca-Terman & Associates.
Anne Marie St. Germaine, Jasculca-Terman’s vice president of strategic services, confirms that Field’s has sought her firm’s advice about Macy’s. But she says, “They haven’t asked us to stop anything. It’s a very dull story.”
Of course, Field’s would rather not have Macy’s across the street, because the highly promotional retailer would put a lot of Field’s top brands on sale every week.
But if it is going to launch a “Macy’s Stay Home” campaign, Field’s had better move fast. Christopher Hill, the city’s commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development, says he would like to see retailers lined up for the long-empty block across from Field’s flagship store by this fall.
And about State Street: Sears, Roebuck and Co. says it isn’t ruffled by the city’s new demand that tax breaks for a new Sears store on State Street be accompanied by improvements in the retailer’s other six city stores.
“We have an ongoing program to renovate and update our stores,” said Lee Antonio, Sears spokeswoman. “That’s not a big deal.”
In fact, Sears is rolling out the red carpet for skeptical city officials, inviting them out to Hoffman Estates sometime in the next two weeks. “We have questions, too. It’s a two-way opportunity,” Antonio says.
When it comes to divvying up public money, it’s always a good day to wheel and deal.
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Appointed: Joseph Horn has been named vice president and general merchandise manager of footwear at Sears as of Aug. 3. Horn most recently was corporate divisional merchandise manager of footwear and coats at Mercantile Stores.