Carter Hawley Hale Stores
Carter Hawley Hale Stores was a American retailer in Southern California. Over time, it acquired other retail store chains in regions outside its Southland home base, and became in certain retail sectors a regional and national retailer in the 1970s and 1980s. It entered into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1991, and eventually its assets were completely sold off.
The chain's beginnings date from the Hale Bros. stores that predate World War II. Prentis Cobb Hale worked as a stock clerk in the family store that bears his name as early as 1936. After the war, Los Angeles began to grow in population very rapidly, and Hale Bros. and LA-based The Broadway merged into Broadway-Hale Stores around 1947. The Broadway's principal was Philip M. Hawley. Another principal was Edward W. Carter. Together these names formed the name of the merged companies.
After Hale's retirement from active leadership of the company in 1972, Hawley took over as CEO. The company acquired several different retail chains, including Contempo Casuals, Waldenbooks, Bergdorf Goodman, Hole Renfrew, Emporium-Capwell, Neiman-Marcus, Thalhimer's, and in 1978 the venerable but tattered John Wanamaker, one of the pioneering department stores of the United States. These acquisitions took place in the 1970s and 1980s. Sales increased, but profits did not. The saying on Wall Street was "God gave them Southern California and they blew it."
Blow it Carter Hawley Hale did. From its heights in 1984 as the sixth largest department store chain firm in the United States, it fell to Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1991, suffering two hostile takeover attempts by The Limited along the way. Because it offered its employees a profit sharing plan, and not a retirement fund, under the Federal ERISA pension plan law the trustee was under no obligation to diversify the fund. Because of the nondiversification and continued purchase of Carter Hawley Hale stock—considering the freefall of the stock price Barron's had not predicted—the employee fund was soon stuck with a precipitous loss in value. Its employees dispirited, the firm declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1991 and soon afterwards closed its doors forever. Its tangible assets were eventually bought by Federated Department Stores, and its The Broadway Store locations—along with other stores in the chain—were put up for sale to other retailers.
Besides the problems of surviving the 1980s era of hostile takovers, the main difficulty in keeping the company afloat was in the department stores, specifically The Broadway and Emporium, whose profits lagged pacesetter Contempo Casuals. Profitability was never uniform in all parts of the retail conglomerate Carter Hawley Hale had become.
The longtime print and television/radio media advertising slogans during the 1970s until The Broadway closed for good were "It's at the Broadway" (radio and television only) and "The Broadway is Southern California" (all media). A baritoned male voice over announcer provided the verbalized slogan.
Hawley still remains on the board of AT&T as of 2004.
External links
Carter Hawley Hale – A Corporate Governance Case Study
John Simon & QRS Case Study (page 1 mentions demise of Carter Hawley Hale and Federated's acquisition of assets)