When Did Steins Makeup Go Out Of Business

D. Hunt Hawkins spent his last full twenty-four hour period in his tenth-floor part at the old Stein Mart Inc. building dressed casually and waiting for his office article of furniture to be moved out.

It was November. 13, three months and a 24-hour interval after Stein Mart'south Affiliate eleven filing in U.Due south. Bankruptcy Court, and time to leave the Downtown Southbank headquarters at 1200 Riverplace Blvd.

Hawkins, every bit CEO of the Jacksonville-based off-price fashion and home-goods retailer, already had removed his personal belongings. A haversack and coffee cup remained, along with other miscellany.

"Mine's all gone," Hawkins said. "That was a hard day, getting my personal holding out of here, because I've been in this office a long time."

He's been there 26 years.

The sign was off the Southbank building. Liquidators were downwards to the "Terminal 9 days!" of selling the remaining HQ piece of furniture and fixtures.

A scattering of executives and It specialists prepared to move to a Baymeadows satellite function as they wrapped upwards business.

Hawkins is downwards to two days a calendar week, "just to help close things out."

He wasn't taking the desk, credenza and other function furniture, by the way. A heir-apparent picked those up the side by side solar day.

Stein Mart CEO D. Chase Hawkins shows what's left in the office antechamber at the bankrupt visitor'south headquarters on the Downtown Southbank at 1200 Riverplace Blvd.

Stein Mart leased about half of the x-story edifice. What's left of the headquarters tables, chairs, lamps, artwork and other furnishings is on that acme executive floor.

The auction is open to the public ix a.k.-4 p.1000. Nov. 19 and the liquidator wraps upwards Nov. 20.

What'southward not sold stays with the building landlord.

"Then we'll abandon the offices, probably the week of Thanksgiving, just no afterwards than the terminate of the calendar month," Hawkins said.

"The but affair required under bankruptcy is that nosotros accept the sign downward, which we did."

It came down Nov. v.

"That was probably one of the saddest things, watching the sign come down."

A 'gut-wrenching' Zoom

Hawkins considered his final total day with mixed emotions.

"The reality was, I'm almost 62 years one-time and I was actually working toward retirement anyway," he said.

He hadn't expected to be there.

In January before the pandemic, Stein Mart'south lath had agreed to sell the visitor to Kingswood Capital Management LLC and to an entity managed by Chairman Jay Stein.

"They pretty well indicated that I was going to be heading off into the sunset," Hawkins said.

And so the pandemic forced nationwide shutdowns in March, which crushed retail sales. The merger was called off in April. Talks resumed, unsuccessfully.

"You didn't wait to go out this way. You lot ready for a lot of contingencies, you lot look at a lot of different things and y'all think yous've got everything under command and then suddenly a pandemic comes and they shut you downward," he said.

Stein Mart operated 281 stores in 30 states, with nearly locations in the S and the Sunbelt.

The stores closed at the cease of business organisation March 18 and started reopening in April.

"The vendor community, once nosotros reopened, they were working with us pretty well," Hawkins said.

He, Stein Mart President MaryAnne Morin and Chief Financial Officer James Brown were optimistic they would pull through.

They thought it might accept a year to "come around the corner," but that it was possible.

Instead, what was around the bend was another surge of COVID-xix.

"When the resurgence hit Florida, hit Texas, striking Arizona and California, and that'southward almost 45% of our stores, sales just plummeted and we just couldn't keep upwardly at that point," Hawkins said.

He, Morin and Chocolate-brown kept the board apprised.

They had talked with Wells Fargo, the atomic number 82 broker, and Gordon Brothers, the term loan holder.

"We were looking to them for a little fleck more fourth dimension, and they were looking and going, 'Nah, it's not going to work, guys.'"

Hawkins said he and Brown knew information technology.

"MaryAnne actually was trying desperately to make it work. It's not that James and I weren't trying desperately to get in work, but you lot could read the cards, and the cards did not say it was going to work," Hawkins said.

"The cash flow indicated nosotros would need more assistance from our lenders or other third party."

Stein Mart sent Worker Aligning and Retraining Notification Act notices for the headquarters and the Atlanta distribution facility tardily Aug. 11 about impending layoffs.

The company filed for bankruptcy protection the next mean solar day.

Hawkins spoke to the management staff upon the filing.

"It was hard. That was the hardest role. I wasn't going to exercise information technology via electronic mail. I was going to talk to them," he said.

Stein Mart set upward two Zoom meetings to tell associates "nosotros had to file." One was with the corporate office and the other was with store managers and assistant managers.

Corporate employees heard commencement and those in the field were told about a one-half-60 minutes later.

"I wanted them to see my face up. I wanted them to hear the emotion in my voice considering information technology wasn't something that I was relishing doing," Hawkins said.

"But it as well wasn't something that I wasn't going to tell them personally."

Because of Zoom's logistics, Stein Mart didn't take questions at those meetings. It sent out questions and answers soon after, and associates could log onto an internal site to inquire more.

The visitor gave news releases and information to distribution and store managers to share with their associates.

"The Hour staff has been fabulous. They have answered more questions and provided more unemployment documents, provided more letters for landlords and all the things that have to become on to help folks go on with their lives, and give them as much help as nosotros could possibly give them," Hawkins said.

Stein Mart was not permitted to pay severance or accrued holiday considering of the bankruptcy filing. It was limited to helping with HR support and to explain unemployment benefits.

"The lack of severance or holiday pay that had been accrued was a sore spot," Hawkins said.

As of Feb. 1, Stein Mart'south workforce comprised about 9,000 employees, including about 350 based at the headquarters as well as the stores and 3 distribution centers.

"We had somewhere around 9,300 associates, and I feel like in some ways we let them down," Hawkins said.

The store liquidation sales started with the filing and concluded October. 26. Of the original 280 managers, about 240 – a "very loyal employee base" – nevertheless were on board when the stores closed.

"I'one thousand sad for them," Hawkins said,

"Only as I told everybody, y'all tin't look at anything you did that acquired this. Our people, everybody from MaryAnne to everybody in the stores, did everything right," he said.

"Information technology's simply when yous get shut down from a pandemic information technology becomes incredibly hard," he said. "It's nothing to hang their caput about."

Advertizement Manager Melissa Cummings, who was with Stein Mart for about seven years, was in the main Zoom meeting, where Hawkins appeared past video and Morin past audio.

"You could tell it was painful for him, gut-wrenching," she said.

Cummings said the employees were in shock, having been told as recently as late June that Stein Mart leaders felt good about survival.

"Many of us had just been given promotions," she said.

"Only the one thing about Hunt is that he always seemed more than down-to-earth and friendly toward employees than whatsoever other CEO I've worked for," she said.

"Those calls that morning time were hard for him," she said. "The decisions weren't fabricated lightly."

Stein Mart's Chapter 11 petition, filed Aug. 12 in the U.Due south. Defalcation Court Middle District of Florida, Jacksonville Sectionalisation, outlines the reasons for the decision.

Retailers, especially those selling dress and accessories, lost sales and market place share the by several years to e-commerce retailers.

That collection down profits.

From 2016 through August, Stein Mart's sales declined and the visitor faced "the difficult task of growing sales while significantly reducing expenses in a difficult retail environment," said the filing.

Stein Mart listed avails of almost $723.five million and liabilities of $770.5 million in the bankruptcy filing.

The pandemic then sealed the deal. Stein Mart lost $66 meg in the quarter that concluded in May.

Stein Mart received a $10 meg loan June 30 from the federal Paycheck Protection Programme for payroll and rent and is applying for loan forgiveness.

Some employees privately say that they idea management knew more about the impending defalcation and closures than they shared with the associates, who did not have time to prepare, and they are disappointed that they received no severance, continued health benefits or other assistance. They say that longtime employees thought they deserved meliorate.

"I understand their frustration," Hawkins said. "It was tough."

Stein Mart CEO D. Hunt Hawkins with the cash register used in the original Stein Mart store in Greenville, Mississippi, during the 1940s and 1950s. Information technology was donated to the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience in North Orleans.

The heyday and the days afterwards

Jay Stein's grandfather, Sam Stein, founded the company in 1908 in Greenville, Mississippi. His son, Jake, took over in 1932 and Jay Stein became CEO in 1977.

Expansion followed.

Stein opened the start of half dozen Jacksonville expanse stores in 1983, moved the headquarters to Jacksonville in 1984 and took the visitor public in an initial public offering in 1992.

Meanwhile, Hawkins, a Knoxville, Tennessee, native, earned an undergraduate degree at the University of Tennessee and a graduate degree in industrial/organization psychology from the University of W Florida.

Hawkins spent the offset decade of his career with specialty retailer Genesco Inc., the Journeys men'south, women'southward and children'south footwear concatenation.

At the historic period of 34, he came to Stein Mart in 1994 on the senior management team equally senior vice president of homo resources.

"I was always part of that five or half-dozen folks that was able to assist form strategies of the visitor," he said. "That was fun."

When he arrived, Stein Mart had 68 stores, on its way to 293 at the peak in 2017.

Over his 26 years, Hawkins served every bit executive vice president, co-president and CEO also every bit master operating officeholder and primary administrative officeholder.

"You learn as an Hr guy to be able to exist flexible plenty to work with everyone," he said.

He lists two leadership challenges: The three-twelvemonth CEO tenure from 2008-xi of former Belk Inc. executive David Stovall, who reduced inventories and generated cash but experienced difficulty driving up sales, and the six-calendar month leadership in 2016 of CEO Dawn Robertson, who moved apace but "mayhap not as cautiously" with sales initiatives.

Hawkins counts the heyday as 2012-15, after Stovall left and Stein returned as CEO and named Hawkins and Brian Morrow every bit co-presidents.

Comparable store sales – sales at stores opened for more a yr – increased in each of those years, and the visitor's financial health improved.

Net sales rose from $1.2 billion in 2012 to $i.36 billion in 2015 and 2016.

When Morrow left, Stein retired equally CEO, remaining chairman, and brought in Robertson.

After she left, Hawkins took over equally CEO in January 2017, bringing on Morin as president.

Simply those heyday years also had problems.

"We became way besides section store-similar," Hawkins said.

Stein Mart filled its agenda with promotions, from coupons to 12- and 14-60 minutes sales that required advertising and other "margin-erosive" actions.

"That kind of took the client's middle off the fact that nosotros were really off-toll," he said.

Morin "was astonished" that about seventy% of the products moved at the ticketed toll, yet the company spent money on promotions that cut into margins.

"When nosotros tested going total off-cost, no promotions whatever, nosotros tested that in Richmond and in Detroit, and it worked beautifully," Hawkins said.

"I wish we had done that sooner."

Hawkins doesn't blame the internet as much every bit other retailers might.

"Everybody wants to blame Amazon and say that Amazon is a big cracking. Years ago information technology was Walmart. Walmart was the big bully," he said.

Both are big and powerful, but not the simply factor.

"I think retailers can in some respects blame themselves because the fact is America is way over-retailed," he said.

"What we're seeing is the fact that consumers' tastes are changing. It's become a casual world and the pandemic has fabricated that fifty-fifty more powerful with the fact that more and more people are working from home."

Hawkins said Stein Mart was i of the showtime off-price retailers to create an internet presence and a website, which concluded upwards accounting for near 8% of its sales volume.

Off-price retailers mostly buy excess inventory from brands and turn a profit past selling it to consumers at prices lower than in boutiques, department stores and other total-cost retailers.

Hawkins said Stein Mart as well was the first off-cost retailer to offer in-shop pickup and ship-from-store.

Stein Mart's targeted customer was a mode- and value-witting woman historic period 45-65, and that was being driven lower.

Morin focused on more than mod and contemporary inventory, and the company began advertising steadily on TV and digitally.

"That was helping united states become a more than younger-minded customer," Hawkins said.

The sales breakdown ended up as 49% for women's apparel; 18% for men's; 10% for dwelling goods; 9% each for accessories and shoes; and 5% for other.

In an endeavor to boost sales and client traffic, Stein Mart reintroduced children's vesture, which appealed to the core female customer, in 2019 and added fine jewelry.

It even set upward Amazon.com Hub Lockers in some locations.

At the finish, home goods became its strongest business organization during the pandemic.

"The client was stuck at abode," Hawkins said.

"It was our highest margin and highest sales business, and it had non been for a long time. It was really fascinating to see a virus gear up dwelling house," he said, referring to that business category.

The moves weren't plenty, and the leadership and board decided on bankruptcy.

Asked about Hawkins, Richard Sisisky, Stein Mart's lead contained director, said the board "felt fortunate to take him as our CEO."

Items for sale inside the Stein Mart headquarters at 1200 Riverplace Blvd.

"While nosotros were all disappointed past the bankruptcy of Stein Mart caused by COVID-19 and the resulting disability to sell the business organization equally planned, Hunt Hawkins provided steady and solid leadership equally the company navigated its way through the complicated process," Sisisky said in an emailed statement.

"Despite all the challenges, Chase managed the myriad of dissimilar interests with care and concern for all impacted by the proceedings."

Stein Mart's sales peaked at $1.5 billion in 2006. Since 2016, they slid to $i.22 billion by 2019.

The last time Stein Mart posted an almanac net income was $23.7 1000000 in 2015. It reported cyberspace losses after that.

The next motility

If Stein Mart doesn't wind up the bankruptcy by Feb, Hawkins will have 27 years with the visitor.

He turns 62 in March, when he and his married woman, Sherri, will gloat their 39th ceremony.

They accept two adult sons, five grandchildren, and consider a young woman they mentored to be a daughter. She has three children.

The couple intends to relocate to their Palm Coast condo for retirement. Hawkins is thinking of consulting, but not in retail.

He also has health to consider.

He endured two open up-heart surgeries – one at age l to supersede a genetic bicuspid aortic valve.

Seven years agone at the age of 54, four weeks afterward dental work and travel, he ran 6 miles on a Saturday forenoon and didn't wake up on Sunday. Total-blown septic shock destroyed the valve and he had emergency surgery Nov. 17, 2013.

"Knock on woods, all is well," he said.

"Which is a skillful reason to retire at 62."

Source: https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/the-stein-mart-bankruptcy-how-it-all-ended

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