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Voluntary severance offered to Zales, Kay Jewelers corporate staff in Texas and Ohio

Signet purchased Irving-based Zale Corp. in 2014, merging the two largest mall-based jewelry retailers in the U.S.

Signet, the parent company to Zales, Jared's, Kay Jewelers and Piercing Pagoda, made a voluntary separation offer Thursday to its 3,400 corporate employees in an effort to cut costs and rebuild its business.

The staff cuts come after a holiday season that CEO Gina Drosos said fell short of expectations, with lower traffic in December and higher-than-expected credit costs.

The retail company has two corporate offices with 2,608 people in Akron, Ohio, and a staff of 789 in Irving. Signet purchased Irving-based Zale Corp. in 2014, merging the two largest mall-based jewelry retailers in the U.S.

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Drosos is leading Signet in the second year of a three-year plan that she has said will put the company and the 3,500 stores it operates on a new growth path for its in-store and online businesses.

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The company needs to cut costs to fund improvements in systems, capabilities, product and stores, Drosos said in a letter to employees. Signet has been in negotiations to reduce rents and has been working with vendors to lower its costs of goods, she said, "but we also need to make some hard decisions to get Signet where we need to be."

The company didn't quantify the cuts it needs to achieve the cost savings it wants.

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"We may need to make further head count reductions to free needed funding for investments," she said.

"I want to emphasize that we are in the midst of a significant and challenging transformation of a legacy mall retailer to a modern omnichannel category leader," Drosos said in her letter. "We need to take bold actions to free up resources necessary to operate more efficiently and make the investments necessary for continued growth."

Employees who have worked at the company for at least two years are eligible for the program, which includes severance payments. The offer is to district manager level employees and above. People in "our high-production areas of distribution, manufacturing, customer care and security are not eligible for the program," said a memo to employees from chief people officer Mary Liz Finn.

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Signet will report its fourth-quarter earnings in early April and plans to announce the results of the voluntary staff cuts at that time, spokesman David Bouffard said.

The company reported its holiday results in January. Same-store sales declined 1.3 percent during the November and December combined period. Zales and Piercing Pagoda posted increases of 2.9 percent and 16.9 percent respectively. But Kay posted a 0.8 percent decline, and Jared's sales fell 8 percent. Peoples', the company's chain in Canada, posted a rise of 4.5 percent.

Twitter: @MariaHalkias