Eddie Bauer parent to lay off 545 workers here
Spiegel is laying off one-fourth of the work force at Eddie Bauer's corporate headquarters in Redmond and will shut down its Bothell customer-service center, which handles orders for Eddie Bauer, Newport News and the Spiegel catalog.
About 180 of Eddie Bauer's 730 corporate employees will be laid off effective Friday. The call center, which has 365 workers, is to close July 6. Affected workers will receive severance pay and job-placement assistance.
Spiegel's recent struggles have been no secret. Some 200 employees were laid off from the Bothell call center in January, and the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March. Last week, Spiegel said it would close 60 Eddie Bauer stores around the country, cutting about 900 jobs nationwide.
Still, yesterday's news stung Seattle-area Spiegel employees. Washington state has one of the nation's highest unemployment rates at 7 percent.
"A lot of people knew it was coming, but people are still upset because they've got benefits, and the job market isn't as great as it used to be," said Kim Nicol, a customer-service representative in Bothell. Nicol, a part-time employee, said business has lagged for weeks, with call-center workers often sent home early.
"It's been real slow," Nicol said. "You go to work for a couple hours and you go home."
In March, Spiegel stopped honoring its company-branded credit cards. That move — a response to mounting troubles in the company's bank subsidiary — apparently took a bite out of business because companywide catalog and Internet sales fell 36 percent in March. Yesterday, the company said it has reached a deal with Alliance Data Systems of Dallas to start new credit-card programs.
Once Spiegel closes its customer-service center in Bothell, work will be sent to the company's four call centers in South Dakota, Virginia and Canada.
The layoffs at Eddie Bauer headquarters were dispersed across the company and at all levels, spokeswoman Lisa Erickson said. Chief Executive Fabian Månsson, said the layoffs were "necessary steps to secure a strong future for our company."
Eddie Bauer sales have dropped in recent years as the company shifted its focus from outdoor-inspired apparel to dressier clothing and back. In March, sales were down 13 percent at stores open for at least a year.
Spiegel, based in Downers Grove, Ill., also will lay off about 90 workers from its information-services division in the Chicago area. The company also said it has received court approval for $400 million in bankruptcy financing from a group of banks.
Jake Batsell: 206-464-2718 or jbatsell@seattletimes.com