Zale Announces Organizational Shakeup

Zale CEO Betsy Burton announced Monday a series of organizational and personnel changes at the company. Among the changes is the creation of a centralized merchandising organization. John Zimmermann, President of Zale North America has left the company.

The specialty jewelry retailer said that the heart of the change is in the “streamlining of its corporate organization that begins with the centralization of support functions for the moderate brands.”

According to Burton, following a year long examination, “We believe there are significant synergies and efficiencies to be gained by the elimination of redundancies and more teaming across brands. We are starting with the consolidation of support functions across the moderate brands as an important step in achieving this goal.”

Steve Lang will head the new centralized merchandising organization. Buying for all of the moderate brands - Zales, Gordon's, Zales Outlet and Peoples/Mappins - will be consolidated under Lang.

The centralized sourcing organization, which was formed last year, will continue to be led by Gil Hollander, Group Senior Vice President and Chief Sourcing Officer.

Zale formed a Chief Operating Officer position and is currently searching for a person to fill this position.

As part of the change, there will no longer be separate brand presidents.

Zale, the leading specialty retailer of fine jewelry in North America, has been battling a downturn for sometime.

In the all-important quarter ending January 2007, Zale posted a very modest 1.4 percent same-store sales gain and a 1.1 percent total sales increase. After-tax profit was down 2 percent from the prior year.