JCPENNEY STORES IN CAPE GIRARDEAU AND SIKESTON WON'T BE CLOSING

JCPenney Co. Inc. stores at Cape Girardeau and Sikeston are expected to remain open following the company's announcement Thursday that a number of stores will close.

Penney officials at Plano, Texas, announced Thursday afternoon the company would close 40 to 45 department stores and 289 Eckerd Drug stores.

Penney has about 1,150 department stores and 2,900 Eckerd stores.

The closings are expected to take place over the next three months.

The stores destined for closing are those that are "performing badly," said the company's chief executive, James E. Oesterreicher. He said the stores closing are generally smaller, low-volume stores that were acquired from other operators over the past several years.

Weak profitability "has caused us to take a hard look at department stores and drugstores that are under-performing and lack future strategic fit." said Oesterreicher.

JCPenney has hired outside experts to identify cost-saving steps.

"I don't know of any stores that will close in Missouri," said Don Fisher, manager of the local JCPenney Co. in West Park Mall.

"Things are looking good at the Cape Girardeau store," said Fisher, who had reported good sales during the Christmas holidays. "We had some double-digit weekend increases over a year ago" in late December.

The announced closings should come as no surprise. JCPenney takes a look at store performances each year. A year ago the company closed about 20 stores in January.

Overall, The department store and catalog retailer reported a net loss of $12 million, or 8 cents a share, in the quarter ended Jan. 29, compared with a gain of $207 million, or 77 cents a share, in the same period a year earlier.

Before one-time charges, including store-closing costs, Penney said its per-share profit fell nearly 40 percent, to 45 cents a share, from 72 cents a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial had expected 47 cents.

Revenue rose 5.2 percent to $9.8 billion from about $9.4 billion a year earlier, but, as the company had previously said, weak holiday sales forced dramatic price-slashing that reduced profit in the fourth quarter. Department-store and catalog sales fell 1.6 percent.

The company says the store closings will save up to $300 million a year.

Penney declined to provide an estimate of how many workers would lose their jobs.

In recent years, Penney's stores have been battered by competition from aggressive rivals such as Kohl's department stores and discount chains, such as Gap Inc.'s Old Navy.

Penney's stock has lost about three-quarters of its value in the past nine months.

Last month, new chief operating officer Vanessa Castagna announced moves to centralize store merchandise-stocking decisions and spruce up the appearance of the department stores, including reducing the amount of "clutter."

Penney said Thursday it would take charges of about $530 million to close 40 to 45 department stores and 289 Eckerd drug stores that are performing badly.

For the year ended Jan. 29, Penney said its net income was $336 million, or $1.16 a share, down 43 percent from $594 million, or $2.19 a share the year before.

Oesterreicher also said the company will proceed later this year with its delayed plans to issue a publicly traded tracking stock for Eckerd.