JCP to begin breaking out numbers for home

HTT Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 11/9/2012 12:36:12 PM

New York - The home department at JCP is still on track for a major overhaul in spring 2013, but in the meantime it generates the lowest productivity in the store, with sales per square foot somewhere near the $69 mark.
Exactly how the department is faring will become more apparent in the company's fourth quarter report, when JCP will begin breaking out some financials for home, apparel and as-yet unspecified categories, ceo Ron Johnson told analysts at a quarterly review meeting here this morning.
Although Martha Stewart topped the list of home brands flashed on the screen during today's presentation (the others were Michael Graves, Jonathan Adler and Bodum), there was no discussion of the Stewart/Macy's dispute and how that might impact Stewart brand identification at JCP.
During the webcast, which is available online in the investor section of JCP's site, Johnson led viewers through a virtual tour of the company mock-up, which for the first time included a portion of the home department. The soft home segment is discernible only in the distance in the closing seconds of the video.
Johnson described the home makeover as "perhaps the most exciting area" in the store. In addition to shop-in-shops, the department will also feature classification merchandising, he said.
"It's very different from what we created before," he added.