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Circuit City cuts 3,400 jobs(Beaumont Enterprise, The (Texas) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Mar. 29--The local effects of a corporate upheaval that shaved thousands of jobs from Circuit City Stores Inc.'s payrolls remained a mystery Wednesday, but plans apparently are still moving forward to bring another store location to Southeast Texas. Circuit City announced Wednesday that the company laid off 3,400 of its in-store staff and will replace them with lower-paid employees. The change is part of an initiative to improve the company's financial performance by adjusting costs and expenditures, according to a statement published on the company's Web site. Circuit City also will outsource its information technology systems to IBM Corp., the statement reads. "We are taking a number of aggressive actions to improve our cost and expense structure, which will better position us for improved and sustainable returns in today's marketplace," Philip Schooner, company chairman, president and CEO, said in a released statement. The Associated Press reported late Wednesday that critics attacked the company's restructuring policy as brutal. "This strategy strikes me as quite cold," Bernard Baumohl, executive director of The Economic Outlook Group told the Associated Press. "I don't think it's in the best interest of Circuit City as a whole." Calls to Circuit City's Beaumont store, 6490 Eastex Freeway, were referred to the company's corporate office in Richmond, Va. Repeated calls to company spokesman Jim Babb were not returned Wednesday. Circuit City is one of three national retailers that developer Charlie Shears, of SDI Realty of Houston, hoped to bring to the Shoppes in Port Arthur, a new 80,000 square-foot retail center planned for the U.S. 69 and FM 365, according to The Enterprise archives. Jon Kantalis, listed as a contact for the Port Arthur development on SDI's Web site, referred all questions to Shears. Shears did not return phone calls Wednesday. Port Arthur City Manager Steve Fitzgibbons said that he met with an SDI representative during the day Wednesday, and the subject of Circuit City's announcement didn't come up. Fitzgibbons said the city approved the plans for the new store "a number of months" ago. Though the Greater Port Arthur Chamber of Commerce has not been directly involved in talks to bring Circuit City to the planned shopping center, chamber president Verna Rutherford said Wednesday that she had not heard of any changes. "I don't know anything to be contrary to the plans as best I know," Rutherford said. Circuit City's stock closed 35 cents higher at $19.23 in trading Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange. Circuit City operates 643 stores in 158 U.S. markets, and more than 800 stores and outlets in Canada, according to the company's Web site. To see more of The Beaumont Enterprise, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.southeasttexaslive.com. Copyright (c) 2007, The Beaumont Enterprise, Texas Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |