Robinson’s to Open 4 Stores, Remodel a 5th

J. W. Robinson Co. announced a $105-million plan Monday to open four new stores and remodel a fifth. The move was viewed as an attempt to revitalize the venerable chain, which was acquired in 1986 by May Department Stores.

Robinson’s also announced that it will close its money-losing store at Anaheim Plaza on Jan. 23. The store’s 76 full-time employees will be offered jobs within the chain.

That 178,000-square-foot store “has been the smallest in volume and productivity of our 25 stores,” Robinson’s President and Chief Executive Robert L. Mettler said in a prepared statement. “Much of its business has now been assumed” by a new Robinson’s store that opened in September at nearby Main Place/Santa Ana, about six miles away.

The five-year, $105-million plan--which comes 15 months after Robinson’s became a division of May--at least temporarily puts to rest industry rumors that May has been planning to throw in the towel and sell portions of the money-losing chain.

Upscale Battle Intensifies

Instead, industry analysts view Robinson’s announcement as a step that could finally return Robinson’s to profitability. At the same time, the battle for upscale Southern California shoppers is almost certain to intensify among Robinson’s, Nordstrom and Bullock’s, experts predicted.

The investment will pay for a 135,000-square-foot Robinson’s scheduled to open in Northridge this fall, a 140,000-square-foot store planned to open at Brea Mall in the fall of 1989 and two new stores at undisclosed locations that will open in 1991. The Mission Viejo Mall store also will be expanded to 137,000-square feet in a major remodeling next year and Robinson’s will invest in “other capital projects,” such as computer equipment, a spokesman said.

Mettler hailed the multimillion-dollar expenditure as “the largest expenditure of any five-year period” for Robinson’s, which “demonstrates the confidence we have in the Southern California market.” He said that Robinson’s, which has stores from Santa Barbara to San Diego, has been “performing satisfactorily.”

Mettler said the decision to close the Anaheim Plaza store came because the chain wants to concentrate on its more profitable operations.

Robinson’s executives privately acknowledge that the chain lost “more than several million dollars” in 1986 on sales of $586 million, said Edward Weller, an analyst with Montgomery Securities in San Francisco. May Department Stores had 1986 sales of more than $10.3 billion.

But with the expansion, Weller said, “they’re competing intensely for business. It’s plain that May Co. is committed to making Robinson’s as good as it can be--$105 million implies a fairly serious commitment.”

Weller added that Robinson’s and May “plainly have brought more discipline and better controls and are intensifying the focus--and they’re obviously willing to spend money to do it right. . . . I think Robinson’s will be in a little better position to make money” in future years, Weller said.