J.Crew has named Dick Boyce, a member of its board of directors, chief operating officer of the troubled retail and catalog company. Howard Socol resigned Monday, less than a year after he was hired to revitalized the company. According to J.Crew, Socol left by mutual agreement, the result of differing views of the cataloger’s future.
Boyce is also president of CAF Inc., an affiliate of Texas Pacific Group, a controlling partner of J.Crew’s since 1998. Texas Pacific recruited Socol, who had a 28-year career at Burdine’s, in Miami.
J.Crew has a huge debt, mostly the result of Texas Pacific borrowing heavily to buy the catalog. Despite claims of a strong Christmas and that it will met its cash flow expectations for the year, concerns about lower sales growth than expected due to the increasing competition from such retailer/catalogers as Banana Republic and Abercrombie & Fitch, its business remain. Moody’s Investors Service recently lowered J.Crew’s debt rating to negative.
J.Crew sold its Popular Club catalog to Fingerhut for $43 million in November and is looking for a buyer for its Clifford & Willis book.
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