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Dive Brief: - Kohl’s has named former Walmart fashion executive Ryan Waymire as chief merchant. He has also had merchandising roles at Wayfair, FabFitFun, Amazon and Target. - Waymire starts Sept. 28, reporting to CEO Michael Bender. He replaces Nick Jones, who joined as chief merchandising and digital officer over three years ago. - The retailer reined in declines in Q2, as net sales fell less than 1% year over year to $3.3 billion, with comps also down less than 1%. Dive Insight: After years of struggles in an ongoing turnaround, Kohl’s more recent changes to merchandising, pricing and marketing may be gaining some traction. The department store has been revamping its private labels for a while. More recently, Kohl’s has introduced a slew of home and apparel lines, including an apparel brand aimed at teens and tweens. And the company brought in soccer star Carli Lloyd to help market its decade-old Tek Gear activewear label. Existing owned brands Simply Vera Vera Wang, Lauren Conrad and FLX remain strong. In Q2 this all paid off, as private label comps rose 3%. Evercore ISI analysts led by Michael Binetti said they are encouraged by that strength, which was in contrast to the overall comp decline. The “ongoing mix shift into proprietary brands should be a long-term tailwind to [gross margin] and support traffic with a low/mid income consumer increasingly looking for value,” Binetti said in a recent research note. However, Q2’s private label growth was weaker than the previous quarter, when growth was double at 6%, and that could signal a problem, according to UBS analysts led by Jay Sole. “Management attributed the slowdown to inventory constraints in Women's, but the moderation is notable given proprietary brands remain the core driver of customer re-engagement, value perception and margin recovery,” Sole said in a research note last month. Waymire will be responsible for Kohl's overall merchandise strategy, overseeing functions including buying, omnichannel merchandising, product design and development, allocation and planning, sourcing, and product portfolio strategy. In a statement, Bender said that Waymire “has deep experience in understanding how to refresh and drive a merchandise strategy for a broad U.S. customer base, and he has an innovative way of integrating meaningful collaborations and social media influencers into product stories.” “Ryan will take the next step with our merchandising teams in modernizing our overall product offering — with customers at the center of all decisions," he said. Kohl’s remains on a steep uphill climb, however. UBS analysts warned that the retailer’s market share loss, particularly to off-price stores, is under-appreciated.
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