
JC Penney will reverse Ron Johnson’s strategy of reducing discounts and put coupon advertising in newspapers again, said William Ackman, the activist investor who recruited the ousted chief executive.
Mr. Johnson, who was replaced by Myron Ullman on Monday, implemented a pricing strategy that eliminated almost all of the company’s discounts and promotions in favor of everyday low prices. Shoppers shunned the department store chain, and sales sank 25% last year.
Mr. Ackman, speaking at a real estate conference in New York, also said Mr. Johnson’s physical absence from the company’s headquarters in Plano, Tex., undermined his overhaul of the department-store chain. Mr. Johnson, along with other former Apple executives he hired, commuted to JC Penney from California and New York. Mr. Johnson’s plan, which Mr. Ackman today continued to call the “right vision” for the company, led to a net loss of $985 million last year.
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