Saks to cut nearly 300 jobs in office consolidation

Department store retailer Saks Inc., Birmingham, Ala., has announced it will combine its Younkers home office operations with its Carson Pirie Scott headquarters to cut costs, cutting as many as 295 jobs. The company will eliminate about 270 positions at the Younkers office in Des Moines, Iowa, and 25 jobs in the Younkers furniture warehouse and in Younkers' distribution center, both located in Green Bay, Wis. The consolidation, which is expected to be finished by the end of the fiscal year in February, will lower the company's pretax operating expenses by about $12 million annually. Restructuring charges, primarily severance and property write-offs, are expected to total about $10 million after taxes, but the majority will be incurred in the fourth quarter of 2002.