Montgomery Ward to End Catalogue Sales

Montgomery Ward, the nation’s sixth-largest retailer, announced today that it is scuttling its famous catalogue and going out of the mail-order business, bringing an end to an era that began in 1872 when the store was founded.

Bernard F. Brennan, president and chief executive officer of the company, said the catalogue business has steadily been on the decline, losing $279 million since 1979. He said Ward now plans to focus corporate and financial resources on a chain of contemporary specialty stores.

The closing of the catalogue business means a loss of about 5,000 jobs.

“We anticipate a reduction of a little over 6% of our total work force of 78,000 or about 5,000 employees,” Brennan said.

Brennan said Montgomery Ward will begin winding down catalogue operations immediately, with the final catalogue to be issued in December.

“We expect to be completely out of this business by the end of 1986,” he said.

Mobil Corp. Subsidiary

Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Spiegel Inc., two of Ward’s largest competitors in the catalogue business, said today that they would have no immediate comment.

Montgomery Ward, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mobil Corp. since 1976, reported 1984 after-tax earnings of $53 million on sales of $6 billion.

Mobil officials said last month that they planned to end their 9-year involvement in retailing by shedding Montgomery Ward. Mobil said it would prepare the subsidiary for independence by reshaping its main retail, credit and insurance operations into a smaller, more concentrated business.

Among the company’s current operations are 319 retail stories, 200 catalogue stores and 1,270 catalogue sales agencies.