Federated to close 5 underperforming stores by May

<p>Federated Department Stores Inc. plans to close five underperforming Richs-Macys and Lazarus-Macys stores in Alabama, Georgia, Ohio and Pennsylvania by May.</p><p>A total of 369 employees will lose their jobs, the Cincinnati-based department-store chain said Friday.</p><p>The stores to be closed are Richs-Macys in Century Plaza, Birmingham, Ala.; Richs-Macys, Cobb Center, in Smyrna, Ga.; Lazarus-Macys stores in Westerville and Oxford, Ohio, and Lazarus-Macys in downtown Pittsburgh.</p><p>The company also reiterated its plans to close the Lazarus-Macys store in Heath, Ohio, in April.</p><p>Federated said it expects store closing and consolidation costs of about $15 million, of which an estimated $7 million will be booked in the fiscal 2003 fourth quarter, with most of the remainder taken in 2004. About $5 million of the fourth-quarter charge will be noncash.</p><p>Federateds fiscal year ends in February.</p><p>The company said the one-time costs arent expected to affect its fourth-quarter earnings view of $2.15 to $2.20 a share.</p><p>Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call forecast, on average, earnings of $2.19 a share for the fourth quarter and $3.41 a share for the year.</p><p>The company expects annual sales to be cut by about $35 million as a result of the store closings, with an immaterial effect on ongoing earnings.</p><p>The Atlanta-based Richs/Lazarus/Goldsmiths-Macys division currently operates 77 stores in nine southeastern and midwestern states, with annual sales of more than $2 billion.</p><p>For the last fiscal year ended Feb. 1, Federated posted sales of $15.4 billion. The company operates more than 460 stores in 34 states, Guam and Puerto Rico under the names of Macys, Bloomingdales, Bon-Macys, Burdines, Goldsmiths-Macys, Lazarus-Macys and Richs-Macys.</p><p>Shares of Federated closed Friday at $49.27, up 98 cents, or 2 percent, on the New York Stock Exchange.</p>