CEO Talks: Tim Baxter on Reinventing Express

Cost cuts. Store closings. Management changes. Process changes. Category additions. Stockkeeping unit streamlining and remerchandising. It’s all been happening at Express as the once dominant fashion specialty chain strives to get customers re-engaged, improve conversion rates and achieve mid-single digit operating profit margins within three years. “It’s a reinvention,” Tim Baxter, chief executive officer of Express, told WWD. “It’s really about reinvigorating the brand, putting product first and about executing very different from how we have in the past. “It’s not a turnaround in the classic sense of a turnaround. The fact that we have no long-term debt is, in our industry, almost unheard of. It’s what’s killing so many companies. It’s trashing cash flow. “From a financial perspective we are very solid. So there is no turnaround required from a financial perspective. We are going to lose some money this year, but we are still generating free cash flow. We have a couple of hundred-million dollars cash on hand. That gives us enormous flexibility.” Tim Baxter  On Wednesday, Baxter presented to investors the new strategy at Express called The EXPRESSway Forward. The program calls for closing 100 stores and $80 million in cost reductions by 2022, including $25 million through process improvements such as accelerating

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