Federated Marketing Alarm Sounds for Sachse

by MR Magazine Staff May 31, 2007

NEW YORK – Still frustrated by the speed at which it’s wooing former May Co. shoppers to rebranded Macy’s stores, Federated Department Stores Wednesday again turned to Peter Sachse.

Federated said that Sachse, chairman and chief executive officer of macys.com, has assumed additional duties as its chief marketing officer and president of Macy’s Corporate Marketing, effective immediately.

His marketing responsibilities were previously handled by Anne MacDonald. Federated didn’t specify MacDonald’s plans or whether she resigned or had been terminated.

BACK: Peter Sachse

Sachse was named Federated’s first chief marketing officer in June 2003 but moved to macys.com as chairman in April 2006, at which time MacDonald joined the company to lead the national brand launch of Macy’s. She’d previously held senior posts with Citibank and PepsiCo.

“By combining the leadership of our marketing and online functions under Peter Sachse, we will be able to more effectively leverage the company’s fast-growing online presence as we continue to build Macy’s as a national brand through a broad range of marketing tools, including Internet advertising,” said Terry Lundgren, Federated’s chairman, president and CEO, of the change.

Lundgren thanked MacDonald “for helping us to define and broaden the reach of Macy’s brand message, and for her efforts in launching the brand nationally last September.”

OUT: Anne MacDonald

Sachse will continue to be based in New York and report to Lundgren. Kent Anderson and Helaine Suval, macys.com’s president and executive vice president for merchandising, respectively, will continue to report to Sachse.

Prior to taking his marketing role with Federated in New York, Sachse served as president and chief operating officer of the company’s Bon Marche division (now Macy’s Northwest). He held a variety of merchandising and stores positions with numerous Federated divisions before assuming his corporate role.

Federated operates 850 department stores throughout the US and had 2006 sales of $27 billion.