RETAILING

Spiegel to Halt Dividend Payments: Suspending the 5 cents-a-share quarterly dividend will save about $21.5 million a year. Sales growth has been slow for the Downers Grove, Ill.-based store-and-catalog retailer. It reported last month that 1995 sales through November had risen 7% to $2.38 billion but that sales in its Eddie Bauer stores open at least a year were flat. For the nine months through Sept. 30, Spiegel Inc. reported a loss of $47 million as lackluster consumer spending, high catalog production costs and consumer credit problems hurt results. Spiegel said it will put the money that would have gone for dividend payments into “strategic growth programs,” including more Eddie Bauer stores in the United States. Spokeswoman Debbie Koopman said that Spiegel has plans to introduce the Spiegel catalog to Canada.