J.C. Penney (JCP) Cans Merchandising Head Francis as Nameplate Lettering Still Wet
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Price: $19.39 +3.58%
Overall Analyst Rating:
NEUTRAL (= Flat)
Dividend Yield: 2.3%
Revenue Growth %: -16.3%
Overall Analyst Rating:
NEUTRAL (= Flat)
Dividend Yield: 2.3%
Revenue Growth %: -16.3%
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J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE: JCP) made a semi-unexpected announcement after the market closed Monday: newly-appointed President Michael Francis will be leaving the company after holding the job for well under a year.
Hired October 3, 2011, J.C. Penney said Francis would be responsible "for all merchandising, marketing, planning and allocation, and product development and sourcing functions."
Francis was Target's marketing chief since 2008 before joining J.C. Penney. It's hard to judge the exec's performance at Target given that he had the role through the financial disaster of 2008 and 2009. Target's shares, for better or worse, basically remained flat over that period.
Keeping it short and sweet, CEO Ron Johnson commented, "We thank Michael for his hard work at jcpenney and wish him the best in his future endeavors." It has all the emotion of your high school gym teacher wishing you the best after graduation (even though you never made it to the top of the rope climb. You gave the effort, which is all the matters).
Meanwhile, despite investor sentiment for a rapid turnaround, J.C. Penney shares are lower than where they were when Francis took over.
Of course, this isn't an update to bash Francis; pegging the stock performance on one person is like attributing a football championship to just the quarterback. But clearly the everyday low prices marketing strategy showed Francis may not have taken as much time to understand J.C. Penney's clientele as he should have. Ron Johnson will surely share in some of the responsibility, but the person with the final word in marketing and merchandising surely needs to perform that task well.
Following the announcement, J.C. Penney shares are down almost 6 percent in late trading.
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Hired October 3, 2011, J.C. Penney said Francis would be responsible "for all merchandising, marketing, planning and allocation, and product development and sourcing functions."
Francis was Target's marketing chief since 2008 before joining J.C. Penney. It's hard to judge the exec's performance at Target given that he had the role through the financial disaster of 2008 and 2009. Target's shares, for better or worse, basically remained flat over that period.
Keeping it short and sweet, CEO Ron Johnson commented, "We thank Michael for his hard work at jcpenney and wish him the best in his future endeavors." It has all the emotion of your high school gym teacher wishing you the best after graduation (even though you never made it to the top of the rope climb. You gave the effort, which is all the matters).
Meanwhile, despite investor sentiment for a rapid turnaround, J.C. Penney shares are lower than where they were when Francis took over.
Of course, this isn't an update to bash Francis; pegging the stock performance on one person is like attributing a football championship to just the quarterback. But clearly the everyday low prices marketing strategy showed Francis may not have taken as much time to understand J.C. Penney's clientele as he should have. Ron Johnson will surely share in some of the responsibility, but the person with the final word in marketing and merchandising surely needs to perform that task well.
Following the announcement, J.C. Penney shares are down almost 6 percent in late trading.
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Re: Michael Francis
roger jones on Jun 18, 2012 07:04 PMMark as Spam | Reply to this comment
Dear JCP;
I just couldn't see the logic in the turn around type of marketing Michael Francis proposed and implemented that was truly not JCP type of sales.
And then when Ellen Degeneres , a lesbian, was hired to be a spokesman for JCP and sales for a family oriented department store , we decided your direction was not right for us anymore.
We bid you farewell.
Sincerely
Roger Jones