Saks Global is expected to emerge from bankruptcy proceedings before the end of the year with new ownership, a five-year business plan, and a strategy designed to better differentiate the merchandising and marketing of Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.
“It’s moving faster than I anticipated,” Geoffroy van Raemdonck, chief executive officer of Saks Global, told WWD, exclusively discussing the Saks Global Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings and what to expect in the coming weeks. “We were able to make very decisive decisions in less than 60 days, to focus on luxury.”
Since Saks Global filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Jan. 13, “Step one was to get the financing. Step two was to get the inventory, and now we are really focused on the vision for the future — and how the company is going to be structured when it emerges from bankruptcy,” van Raemdonck said. “The restructuring plan is going to be filed in weeks from now, and that will detail how this company will be structured, from a business plan, from a capital structure, post emerging.”
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The plan is being formulated by Saks Global in negotiations with creditors, who will vote on the plan, which then must get final approval by the bankruptcy court for the company to emerge from bankruptcy.
“What the business plan will show is that we have a plan of action to drive sales, to grow from a smaller footprint, and to be significantly more profitable,” van Raemdonck said. “It is also going to demonstrate that we have ample liquidity to operate and fund the business, as well as generate free cash flow to invest in the business over the next five years. That’s what this business plan will be detailing.”
“What’s changed over the last two months is that we have $1.75 billion of committed capital. We have $825 million that we’ve received, and we are receiving another $300 million in a matter of days or weeks. It’s really, really close…When we entered the [bankruptcy] process, we received DIP (debtor-in-possession) financing and we put in a topline revenue budget and a budget for receiving inventory, and we are exceeding both the revenue budget and the amount of inventory we are receiving, which is very encouraging.
“Yes, we had a problem of liquidity,” van Raemdonck admitted. “It led to a problem of inventory and performance. That was the summary of last year. The summary of this year is we are through a financial restructuring that gives us access to liquidity and allows us to refocus the business on the most valuable assets we have, and when we emerge later this year, we will be able to perform at the level we want.”
Inventory Flowing In
While there’s no guarantee that Saks Global successfully emerges from bankruptcy this year, van Raemdonck, while being interviewed from the Brookfield Place headquarters of Saks Global in lower Manhattan, cited progress in the court proceedings, and expressed gratitude that many designers and brands have either continued or resumed shipping the luxury retailer. He said brands have committed to close to $1.3 billion of inventory.
“That’s 80 percent of the [spring] season that we need to have. And that number is growing week by week,” he said. “I was looking at our receipts this month — they’re up 63 percent compared to last year, and from February to this month to date, we are up 15 percent… We have many, many brands, but if you take our top 100 or 200 brands, none have said they’re not going to do business with us going forward. Brands are really catching up very fast and supporting us. I don’t take that for granted. We need — and we are — actively rebuilding their trust.”
According to van Raemdonck, Saks Global’s top 10 brands account for a third of the retailer’s volume. “We are their largest partner in the U.S., for sure, and in most cases, globally,” he said. “We have many brands that are exclusive to us, and many emerging brands that do 30, 40, 60 or more percent of their business with us.”
While resuming support for Saks Global, many designers and brands remain cautious and looking to lower risks, seeking quicker payments, sometimes upfront. Saks Global internally, working with financial advisers, compiled a list of “critical” vendors it needs to have goods from, to fill its shelves and successfully reorganize, and also settle some pre-petition liabilities.
Saks Global has indicated that post-petition invoices for merchandise receipts will be paid pursuant to current terms, which are set at 90 days from receipt of goods, though some vendors are getting preferential treatment with a 60-day schedule. It’s expected that if and when Saks Global emerges from bankruptcy, payment terms would revert to those that were in place prior to Saks Global’s acquisition of Neiman Marcus Group, though a schedule for paying vendors must be approved by the bankruptcy court judge. Thirty- to 60-day payment terms are the industry standard.
Under Saks Global’s prior regime, the company largely lost the support of the fashion industry due to its failure to pay bills for several seasons and a host of unmet promises. Consequently, the stores were depleted of merchandise, market share was lost, and competitors, most notably Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom, have been taking advantage of the situation by aggressively working to add designers they did not previously sell, and provide more space in their stores to certain designers that they already did sell.
But at Saks Global, much has happened in the two months since going bankrupt to obtain financing to replenish inventories and maintain operations and set a new foundation for a potentially more viable — and streamlined — future.
It’s expected that through a debt-for-equity swap, key bondholders, including Pentwater Capital and Bracebridge Capital leading the lending group arranging a $1.75 billion financing package for Saks Global in bankruptcy, will become owners in Saks Global. In effect, Saks Global will become a new debt-free or near debt-free company post bankruptcy. Hudson Bay Co., Amazon, Authentic Brands Group, and G-III all had equity stakes in Saks Global going into the bankruptcy, but it’s anticipated they will see the value of those shares slip away in the court-led process.
Chapter 11 bankruptcy enables a retailer to get out of leases without penalty. Saks Global is closing 20 Saks Fifth Avenue stores, leaving just 13 operating, including the Fifth Avenue flagship in Manhattan, and shutting four Neiman Marcus units, leaving 32 operating. In addition, Saks Fifth Avenue was pulled off Amazon.com; one distribution center was closed, leaving three operating, though three others were closed pre-bankruptcy, leaving the company with its newest facilities that provide better service, and 57 Saks Off 5th stores are being shuttered, leaving just 12 for the time being. Saks Global has also shut down the Horchow catalogue and the five Last Call clearance centers for Neiman Marcus.
Saks Global volume was listed at about $7.3 billion shortly after the Neiman’s acquisition in fiscal 2024, before the streamlining.
Saks Global executives leave open the possibility that a few more Saks or Neiman’s stores could close.
There has been speculation of asset sales, including Bergdorf Goodman. Asked about that, van Raemdonck replied: “We are always going to continue to look at the footprint, the assets, we have. That’s normal course of business. But today, there are no active conversations about any asset sales.”
Upon going bankrupt, a new management team was set with a blend of senior executives from Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. Van Raemdonck became CEO of Saks Global in January, after sitting on the sidelines of luxury retailing for a year. He had been CEO of the Neiman Marcus Group for nearly seven years until it was purchased by Saks Global.
“I came back because I have a belief in what Saks Global can be, and I’m confident that we can emerge as a strong business,” van Raemdonck told WWD. “What you’re seeing is someone who is very matter-of-fact and very confident. I didn’t have to do this. But I did this out of belief that Saks Global will be successful, and I’m willing to put my reputation on the line.”
Van Raemdonck said he believes combining Saks Fifth Avenue and the Neiman Marcus Group into Saks Global is a good idea. “The merger made a lot of sense to me, because by bringing the two best players in the industry that have three banners [Saks, Neiman’s and Bergdorf’s] you get to attain a certain level of scale and synergies that help your overall profitability and ability to invest.”
Cost Savings
Navigating through the bankruptcy is further challenged by the ongoing systems integrations and consolidations initiated when Saks Global bought NMG for $2.7 billion in December 2024. The goal has been to achieve hundreds of millions of dollars in cost savings by centralizing and eliminating duplicative functions, such as accounting, planning, human resources, legal and distribution facilities. There is now one buying team for Neiman’s and Saks, and one marketing team serving Bergdorf’s, Neiman’s, and Saks. Bergdorf’s has its own buying team. Savings will also be attained through store closings, leading to layoffs and payroll reductions.
Aside from cost savings, the combined business should benefit from access to greater data, sharing best practices, enhanced personalization, and increased use of AI. Merging loyalty programs is a possibility. For example, using each retailer’s credit cards to shop could earn points valid at both Saks and Neiman’s. Or spending enough at either store could lead to access to invitation-only events at both Saks and Neiman’s.
Von Raemdonck described Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus as the same yet different — both operating as multibrand luxury retailers but doing it in different ways.
“Neiman Marcus has been a relationship business and very focused on omnichannel, and on wholesale, and the metric of success was profitability,” he said. “Saks was a business that was focused on growth, on digital, and adopted the marketplace format much more, and it didn’t have the same level of profitability,” van Raemdonck said.
“They were both were operating with distinct strategies that resonated with the customer, but with a different impact on profitability and generation of cash flow.”
Sources have told WWD that among true luxury brands — such as Chanel, Dior, and Giorgio Armani — there’s been about 90 percent overlap between Saks and Neiman’s. But Saks has been emphasizing a wider range of categories and price points, attracting a broader demographic, and has been aggressive trying to build business online. Saks stores house many more leased designer shops than Neiman’s, which has long been reluctant to open leased shops but in recent seasons has opened some.
By virtue of its Fifth Avenue flagship being a major tourist attraction, Saks has more international recognition than Neiman’s. In fiscal 2025, the flagship saw nearly 3 million shoppers from over 150 countries, and generated three times the amount of business as the largest Neiman Marcus stores, according to Saks Global.
As van Raemdonck pointed out, Neiman’s has maintained its focus on its wealthiest customers, through exclusive offerings, personal service and VIP-type events. Neiman’s has a track record of providing deeper, broader assortments of each of the top luxury collections it sells, and has a stronger selling culture than Saks.
Differentiating the Banners
Regarding the future of Saks and Neiman’s, van Raemdonck said, “We want to separate and differentiate them. As a point of reference, if you take the six markets where Saks and Neiman’s are either in the same mall, or across the street like in Beverly Hills, the overlapping customer is between 10 and 15 percent which [means] the customer is telling us they’re different brands. And in the future, we want to make them even more different, so that there’s a reason to shop in both of them, or to be deeply loyal with one of them.”
Asked how that’s accomplished, van Raemdonck said, “It’s in the positioning. It’s in the expression, in the assortment, and it can be the same brands [sold at both stores], but the assortment should be slightly different,” meaning each having a different merchandise edit.
“The Saks customer likes to express herself through fashion, but she needs a little bit more guidance in choosing the fashion that is right for her,” van Raemdonck said. “The Neiman’s customer is a fashion customer who has her own sense of taste, loves color, and loves newness, and so their way of approaching the same element of fashion and newness is slightly different.”
Discussing Saks Global overall, van Raemdonck boasted, “We have the largest base of highly engaged luxury customers. Fifty to 60 percent of our sales are with customers who shop seven to nine times a year with us, depending on the retail banner. They spend more than $5,000 with us, and we retain more than 80 percent of them. Forty percent of our sales come from customers who spend $10,000 or more with us. And so the majority of our sales are from loyal customers and when you shop seven to nine times a year, you’re deeply loyal. We have a retention rate of 90 percent from top customers.”
One of the big challenges in a bankruptcy is retaining employees and communicating to all constituencies concerned that the company isn’t disappearing and has a future, even in a downsized state.
“We are doing this very, very frequently and very openly, because transparency is critical,” van Raemdonck said. “This morning I was talking with our employees in Bangalore. We have a whole team there that supports us across all functions,” including creative, planning, merchandising and payroll functions. “This Monday, we had what we call an ‘All Access,’ meeting which is our all-employee town hall. We call it All Access because everyone gets a front row seat [it’s a virtual meeting] and everyone gets access to the information.” It’s a monthly event. “And then we meet with our leadership council, the top 50 people in the organization, every other week. And every week, we talk with the ad hoc group of creditors, and we are meeting in person with the unsecured creditor committee [Thursday] to share with them our business plans. So the communication is very, very frequent. We communicate with brands on a very frequent basis, at my level, and then Lana [Todorovich, chief global brands partnerships officer] is with the brands on a daily basis.
“We have more than 1,500 sales associates who sell at least $1 million per year and in aggregate deliver more than $2.8 billion of revenue,” the CEO added. “Over the last 12 months, our attrition rate amongst top sellers that sell more than $3 million annually is in the low-single digits.”
