Top Management at Woodies to Step Down

Taubman Investment Co., a private investment company controlled by developer A. Alfred Taubman, said it plans to retain its controlling stake in Woodward & Lothrop Inc., which operates the Woodward & Lothrop department store chain in Washington and Baltimore and the Wanamaker chain in Philadelphia. Taubman Investment had said it might sell one or both of the chains.

The company announced that Woodies’ top management, Chairman and Chief Executive Edwin K. Hoffman and President Tom L. Roach, formerly president and chief executive of Robinson’s in Los Angeles, will step down. Hoffman will be replaced by Arnold Aronson, a former chairman of Bullock’s/Bullocks Wilshire and of Saks Fifth Avenue. Since 1987, he has been president of Arnold Aronson & Co., specializing in acquiring retail businesses.

Taubman said it plans to substantially increase Woodies’ equity “to fund an aggressive capital spending program.”