2 Federated Veterans Hired by Campeau
Two veteran executives with Federated Department Stores have been hired to head the combined operations of Federated and Allied Stores, Campeau Corp. has announced.
John W. Burden III will serve as chairman and chief executive of Allied/Federated Department Stores, and James M. Zimmerman as president and chief operating officer, Campeau Chairman Robert Campeau said in a statement.
Burden, 51, formerly served as a vice chairman of Federated, a position he held from February, 1985, until recently resigning with other top Federated executives when Campeau took control. Burden was elected to Federated’s board of directors in July, 1985.
Zimmerman, 44, has served as chairman of Federated’s Atlanta-based Rich’s department store division since January, 1984. Prior to that, he was president of the division since March, 1980.
The appointments settle the question of who would run Campeau’s U.S. retailing empire. The job had been open since May 6, when Robert Morosky quit as Allied’s president. Morosky said Campeau had reneged on a promise to make him chairman of Allied and the main overseer of Federated as well.
Campeau has served as chairman of Allied and Federated since his company acquired control of Federated in early May as the result of a $6.6-billion buyout. Campeau now becomes chairman of the combined corporation’s executive committee, the company announced.
From 1971-73, Burden was a division merchandise manager at Burdines in Miami. He became vice president and general merchandise manager at Burdines in 1973 and in 1976 was named executive vice president of the division.
He was promoted to president of Burdines in 1978, and in 1981 was named chairman of Federated’s Brooklyn-based Abraham & Straus department store division.
Zimmerman joined Federated in 1965 at its former Houston-based Foley’s division. He moved to Federated’s Cincinnati corporate office in 1968.
He was promoted to vice president for operations at Sanger Harris in Dallas in 1974, advancing to senior vice president in 1976 and executive vice president in 1979. He joined Rich’s department store division in 1980.
Analysts’ predictions that Campeau would cut staff and use other means to reduce its costs have been so far borne out. Campeau faces huge debts incurred to buy Cincinnati-based Federated.
On May 20, Federated said it would lay off 1,200 people, or about 8% of its work force. About two weeks ago, 92 employees were laid off at Federated’s corporate headquarters in Cincinnati, ranging from senior management to clerical staff.
Campeau has also ordered Bloomingdale’s, one of Federated’s largest divisions, to reduce annual operating expenses by $60 million through various economies, including staff cutbacks, industry sources say.
Campeau took on huge debt to buy Federated. To pay for the purchase he plans to raise $3.4 billion by selling eight Federated divisions, including Bullock’s/Bullocks Wilshire. Ralphs, a California supermarket chain, will be spun off into a separate Campeau subsidiary.
In addition to Bloomingdale’s and Lazarus, Campeau plans to keep Rich’s in Atlanta, Goldsmith’s in Memphis, Burdines in Miami and A&S; in New York.
Since Campeau bought Allied, he has cut more than 60% of the retailer’s 1,000 corporate staffers and laid off 5% of the 40,500 workers at the store divisions.
