Saks Global is playing the waiting game again.
The retailer — which has been on the hot seat for slow and past-due payments to vendors for more than a year — finds itself at least temporarily on Hilldun Corp.’s “do not approve” list.
“They skipped two weeks of payments,” said Gary Wassner, chief executive officer of the factoring firm, in an interview on Tuesday.
Wassner stressed that the nonpayment “wasn’t just out of the blue.”
“They asked if they could skip one week for specific internal reasons,” he said. Hilldun continued to sign off orders and Saks “ended up over their credit limit.”
Factors are financial go-betweens that help keep the money flowing in fashion. They pay brands up front for shipments to stores and then collect the money from the retailer later. If vendors ship without their factor’s approval, they are on the hook if the retailer doesn’t pay.
Saks Global has been working its way back into the good graces of Hilldun.
“They paid us last week and they’re paying us this week,” Wassner said. “I’m hoping that by next week, assuming they continue to pay us, I’ll be able to approve orders once again, which is all I want to do. My clients want to ship.”
A Saks representative was not immediately available for comment Tuesday afternoon.
Hilldun works with over 140 brands that sell to Saks Global, which owns Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman.
“The reality is they’re so important to the market,” Wassner said. “Many clients, it’s 40 to 50 percent of their wholesale business. They have inventory made, it’s sitting, it’s packed and ready, they’re just waiting for approval.”
Saks Global’s sales fell 11.1 percent to $1.6 billion for the second quarter ended Aug. 2, but CEO Marc Metrick has said that the concession business, where inventory is not an issue, was up by double digits.
Saks Global is working on a grand reset of luxury retailing, merging the back ends of Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue, but it’s a project that’s been constrained by a lack of inventory as vendors have pulled back.
Some have hit their breaking point.
Dressmaker Jovani Fashion, which sold goods to Neiman Marcus, is one example. The New York-based firm sued Saks Global in October for its past-due balance of $295,651.91 on shipments that carried an agreed-on price of $344,615.51.
Vendors only rarely sue retailers as court cases hurt business relationships.
But frustration with Saks has been simmering, leading to continued speculation about just what comes next as the company finishes off what could be a make-or-break holiday season.
“I am expecting them to do something in January because it can’t go on like this from week to week,” Wassner said. “They have to make some kind of announcement, either put in more money or leverage some more real estate and pump in some funds. I don’t know what they’re contemplating.”
Already, Saks Global, which bought Neiman’s for $2.7 billion almost a year ago, refinanced the bonds it took on to close that deal.
“Department stores work in Europe. Why isn’t it working here? It’s working at Bloomingdale’s and it will work at Nordstrom as things progress; it’s working now,” said Wassner, suggesting price promotions are dragging down the sector. “They’re undermining one another with these sales. There’s no holistic picture of our industry.”
No matter what happens to department stores, the customer they serve is still going to get their fix.
“It’s not going away,” Wassner said. “People are going to shop every day, all the time. It’s just a matter of where they’re going to shop and what method they’re going to use.”
In a recent letter to clients, which was first reported by Puck, Wassner said, “We sincerely hope that the hold on approvals is only temporary.
“We are at another tipping point, and the decisions that Saks Global makes now will determine just how strong they could be,” he said. “If the vision I have is not appreciated and shared by those determining the fate of the company, then I do not know where this will lead us. Risk and reward! The fundamentals of executive decision making.”
