Macy's 2001 Annual Report Download - page 5

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2001Dear Fellow Shareholder: Sometimes, t he best t hat can be said about a year is t hat it ’s
over. For our count ry, our indust ry and our company, 2001 was one of t hose years.
From adversit y, however, has come a renewed energy and determinat ion t o move
f orward – t o overcome challenges bot h int ernal and ext ernal. This is as t rue f or
Federat ed as it is f or America. So just as we are proud of our nat ion and it s abilit y t o
rise t o t he dif f icult challenges we are f acing in t he af t ermat h of 2001, so are we
proud of Federat ed’s 115,000 employees nationwide f or t he incomparable spirit and
resolve t hey have demonst rat ed over t hese dif f icult past 12 mont hs.
A conf luence of f act ors inf luenced our 2001 perf ormance, some of which were well
out side of our abilit y t o cont rol. Among t hese were an economy dipping int o recession,
t errorism and t ourism issues t hat signif icant ly impact ed major East and West Coast
market s where Federat ed has sizeable concent rat ions of st ores, power short ages and
blackout s in Calif ornia, and unseasonable weather pat t erns across much of t he
count ry t hat hurt sales of wear- now apparel t hroughout most of t he year.
In addit ion t o t hese ext ernal issues, t here were int ernal f act ors inf luencing our
perf ormance, many of which we believe can be impacted posit ively. So it is in t hese
areas t hat we are f ocusing our st rat egies and redoubling our eff ort s in 2002, wit h
t he singular goal of developing a more compelling business proposit ion f or our
customers t o drive sales growt h. We will not st and st ill unt il t his is accomplished.
To achieve t his goal, our object ives are clear:
• We will improve t he shopping experience f or our customers, making it easier
and f ast er t o purchase merchandise.
• We will make our delivery of value more apparent t o t he cust omer.
• We will narrow our merchandise assort ment s t o make selections easier and
present ations more convincing.
• We will f ocus on f ashion and newness.
• We will make our st ores more visually appealing and easier t o navigat e.
• We will t ell our new st ory t hrough ef f ect ive market ing.
• We will cont inue t o invest in developing our people.
LETTER TO SHAREHOLDERS