JCPenney streamlining staff at HQ

HTT Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 4/5/2012 1:50:12 PM

Plano, Texas - Part of JCPenney's pitch to self-fund its strategic overhaul includes $200 million in cost-cutting at headquarters here, and today the company announced it had begun the process of flattening its management structure.
The release was short on details, saying the retailer is "rebuilding" its merchandising and planning & allocation teams. Estimates from the business press put the cuts at between 10% to 13% of staff.
"We are going to operate like a start-up," said ceo Ron Johnson, who earlier this year asserted the ratio of managers to direct reports at JCPenney was out of sync with the rest of the industry.
The new structure, he said today, will make the company "nimble, quick to learn, quicker to react."
JCPenney also plans to reduce store operations costs by $400 million and advertising expenses by $300 million.