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Hess's employees, including top executives, are likely to be laid off in the wake of a sale of 20 Hess's stores to Bon-Ton Stores Inc., according to a Bon-Ton executive.
Michael L. Gleim, senior executive vice president and chief administrative officer of the York-based chain, says layoffs of some of the 200 employees on the corporate staff are to be expected.
"We will integrate their back-office function into our organization," he says. "We probably will interview all the people in the Hess's central office who have an interest in working with us.
"We will need to determine whether they are willing to relocate or move into a position on the sales floor."
The $60 million agreement of sale incudes Hess's flagship store and corporate headquarters on Hamilton Mall in downtown Allentown and three others in the Lehigh Valley, along with the store's name and trademark.
Bon-Ton knocked Boscov's Department Stores of Reading out of the running for the Hamilton Mall store, says Boscov's owner Albert Boscov. Boscov's operates 27 stores in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.
May Department Stores Co., in St. Louis, the nation's largest department store retailer and a longtime competitor of Bon-Ton, will purchase the 10 remaining Hess's stores for an undisclosed sum.
May owns 302 department stores and 4,000 Payless Shoe Stores around the country. That company beat out Boscov's for the Harrisburg East store.
The Hess's stores to be bought by May will undergo a liquidation and, when they reopen, be operated by its Kauffman's, Hecht's and Filene's divisions.
Those bought by Bon-Ton will continue to...