Could Wal-Mart Bribery Scandal Derail Michaels’ IPO?

April 23, 2012 by 17 Comments

One of the year’s most hotly anticipated IPO offerings, Michaels Stores, could possibly be derailed because of a scandal involving its CEO’s previous tenure as a Wal-Mart executive.

On March 30th, Michaels Stores filed a widely anticipated notice with the SEC that it intends to become a publicly-held company again through an IPO that could raise as much as a half-billion dollars according to the SEC filing. Its private equity ownership Blackstone Group and Bain Capital have hired JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs to manage the IPO. Michaels was purchased by Blackstone and Bain in 2006 for $6 billion, and has been burdened ever since with a heavy debt load (currently $3.49 billion) that was used to finance the purchase. The company says it plans to use the IPO in part to pay off some of that debt. [Read more...]

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Fiskars Merging Distribution Centers in Mississippi

May 15, 2010 by 3 Comments

Fiskars announced Thursday that it is consolidating all of its warehouse and distribution operations for its Garden and School/Office/Craft divisions into a single new center in Southaven, Mississippi later this year.

Two warehouse/distribution facilities in Wisconsin will be closed to allow for the consolidation in Mississippi. The company’s Sauk City, WI facility will be closed by the end of 2010, and the Wausau, WI facility will close by May 2011. A total of 115 employees in the two locations were notified Thursday that they will be laid off due the facilities closing. Fiskars is offering severance packages and transition programs to the affected workers.

The merger of the distribution facilities is part of an ongoing effort by Fiskars to merge their Garden and School/Office/Craft divisions to maximize the efficiency of the company and improve its order fulfillment for its retail customers. The effort began last year when the business operations of the two divisions were moved into a single facility in Madison, WI.

The company will begin occupying a 260,000 square foot facility in Southaven, Mississippi in September 2010. The facility will host some light assembly and the distribution functions, employing 100 people in two shifts.

The Mississippi location was selected for the consolidated distribution center because of its proximity to serving Fiskars’ major retail accounts, which include Michaels (Dallas), Wal-mart (Arkansas), Home Depot (Atlanta), Lowe’s (North Carolina), and Office Depot (Florida).

“The new location is in closer proximity to many of our retail partners’ distribution centers allowing us to provide improved customer service,” Fiskars spokeswoman Julia Prohaska told Scrapbook Update. “The merging of our garden and craft distribution also allows us to combine orders in single shipments.”


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