Penney has introduced new private labels, including a workwear-oriented brand for men, a dressy line for women and a casual brand "not to be confused with athleisure." The company said by email that it has also developed apparel with inclusive sizing and adaptive features, and created its Hope & Wonder private label brand " to bring key cultural and seasonal moments to life." "Our sheer breadth of categories and products provide families the ease of shopping at one destination." "We’ve always cared deeply about our customers and we have a lot of exciting initiatives underway to make the JCPenney shopping experience even more relevant, accessible and seamless for our customers," the company said by email. That result would also be in line with prepandemic 2019 " if you adjust for the change in the number of stores we have in operation today," the company said. Without adjusting for store closures, it would be a dip of 16%, according to a detail in The Wall Street Journal's report that the company declined to confirm. The company shared by email that it expects to reach about $9 billion in revenue this fiscal year, reflecting a 10% year-over-year jump.
Penney no longer releases its quarterly earnings results, and Simon Property Group CEO David Simon has resisted analysts' suggestion that the company provide more detailed information about the performance of the retailers it now owns. More difficult to know is how that translates to sales. In March, traffic there declined 34.4% compared to prepandemic 2019, following similar declines in February and January, according to data from footfall analytics firm Placer.ai. Shopping may be back, but is it back at J.C. (Brookfield and Simon didn't immediately respond to requests for comment a Kohl's spokesperson said the company would "not comment on any rumors or speculation.") The return Kohl's may soon be coming up with a Sephora replacement as well, given that people familiar with Simon and Brookfield's plans told the Post that the tie-up would be cancelled. However, JCP's intention to gravitate to more inclusive niche-beauty brands, catering to more ethnically diverse consumers, is probably the right move." "Sephora was about style and beauty, and the store wasn’t. " Marc Rosen’s own admission that the JCP/Sephora customer came for Sephora, but didn’t shop the rest of the store speaks volumes," Sanford Stein, founder of Retail Speak, said by email. The retailer has since developed its own beauty concept, focused in part on inclusivity and partnerships with Black founders. Penney CEO Marc Rosen said the concessions really didn't help much because Sephora shoppers didn't buy much else. But the department store has apparently made peace with it, and moved on. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago, J.C. Penney dragged Sephora to court over this, as analysts lamented that the Sephora operations were the most productive areas of its stores. Penney has watched popular beauty retailer Sephora take its shop-in-shop business to Kohl's.Īfter ditching its Penney partnership, t he LVMH-owned retailer forged plans to run 400 Kohl's-based shop-in-shops by the end of this year and 850 by 2023. "Indeed, a successful deal would put a lot on the plate of Simon and Brookfield as the turnround of JC Penney is a very long way from being completed, and Kohl’s needs a significant amount of work as it tries to revitalize its fortunes." The beauty of itĪlong with the other upheaval of the last couple of years, J.C. "Creating a bigger business of two struggling department stores would not magically transform the fortunes of either," GlobalData Managing Director Neil Saunders said in emailed comments. Penney's plans, especially in light of the revelation that the Simon-Brookfield idea is for a single operating entity to run both retailers. Simon, Brookfield and Kohl's didn't respond to questions about the deal, which was first reported by the New York Post.īut the move could disrupt J.C. Penney's owners - Simon Property Group and Brookfield Asset Management - have bid nearly $9 billion for rival Kohl's. Also back is further change, however, at least if it's true that J.C.