Finlay's Departure Leaves Department Stores Struggling With Fine Jewelry
Posted on July 5, 2009
Finlay's departure leaves questions about the future of fine jewelry counters at many major department stores. Finlay ran the licensed jewelry departments in 566 department stores nationwide according to an SEC filing in January, 2009. Finlay had over 670 jewelry counters inside department stores. These jewelry counters are going to be disappearing in many department stores this fall.
Finlay Fine Jewelry is a the largest operator of licensed fine jewelry departments in department stores throughout the United States. The company also has stand-alone store. Finlay has fine jewelry outlets in department stores including Macy's, Bon Ton, Lord & Taylor, Dillard's and Gottschalk's. Finlay has a total of 674 of these jewelry outlets located inside department stores. Reuters reports that the company is exiting its department store businesss.
Finlay executive Arthur Reiner says in a statement, "Given the decline in our department store business over the past five years coupled with the strenuous economic conditions... we view our strategic plan to exit this business segment as a necessary measure."
Reuters also says that Finlay was having trouble getting its jewelry store licenses renewed at some Macy's and Lord & Taylor locations. It's not clear what the department stores are going to put in place of the Finlay jewelry outlets. Some may decide to just carry less inventory than they do now.
The National Jeweler questioned several retailers that used Finlay counters about what they are going to do about fine jewelry going forward.
- Lord and Taylor said they are still carrying jewelry but would not give details about future plans for fine jewelry.
- Some Macy's department stores will be maintaining jewelry counters in-house.
- Bon-Ton Stores would not comment.
- Bloomingdale's paid Finlay's for some jewelry related assets but would not comment on future fine jewelry plans.