NEW YORK - Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, will move design and development of its apparel to New York in a bid to revive declining clothing sales and cut production time.
Wal-Mart will close the product-development and sourcing divisions for men's, women's, and children's clothing at its Bentonville, Ark., headquarters, spokeswoman Linda Blakley said yesterday. She declined to say the number of jobs affected.
The retailer said last year it was expanding design studios in New York and named new executives after clothing sales faltered. Wal-Mart has said it moved too fast into fashionable lines such as Metro 7 dresses. It now will concentrate on upgrading T-shirts and other basics in a variety of colors.
The operations in New York will focus on developing and marketing exclusive clothing, Blakley said. "We expect to move quickly," she said, without elaborating. The changes were reported earlier in The New York Times and New York Post.
Separately, Wal-Mart said yesterday it will add Hannah Montana clothing, shoes, and watches in a partnership with Walt Disney Co. The line of exclusive handbags, luggage, and sportswear will feature the Disney Channel series heroine. Some Hannah Montana toys will be offered exclusively at Wal-Mart later this year.
The retailer will promote the collection in new ways, including advertisements in 4,000 US theaters when a Hannah Montana concert movie begins tomorrow, spokeswoman Melissa O'Brien said yesterday.
The move is part of Wal-Mart's strategy to add exclusive brands in the next three to five years, similar to Target Corp.'s success with clothing by designers such as Isaac Mizrahi, who was lured away from the discounter by Liz Claiborne Inc. this month.
Wal-Mart executives have said the company erred in carrying too much higher-priced, trendy clothing. "We overloaded the fashion part," chief executive H. Lee Scott told analysts at an annual gathering in October 2006. Later, the retailer cut back on some lines, including Metro 7.
A return to basics has helped improve purchases, with its "10 items, 10 colors, under $10" apparel program. It has already generated "double-digit" sales increases, US stores chief Eduardo Castro-Wright said during the company's third-quarter conference call in November.
