NEW YORK CITY, New York: After years of expansion fueled by debt and rising pressure from cautious luxury shoppers, Saks Global has sought bankruptcy protection as it moves to overhaul its business and balance sheet.
The New York-based private company, which owns Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus, said on January 14 that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the Southern District of Texas. The filing comes as the retailer prepares to reposition itself in an increasingly competitive upscale market, backed by about US$1.75 billion in financing commitments.
Leadership changes have accompanied the restructuring effort. Chief executive Marc Metrick stepped down earlier this month as the company grappled with debt linked to its $2.65 billion acquisition of Neiman Marcus in 2024. He was succeeded by executive chairman Richard Baker, who quit both roles earlier this week and was replaced as chief executive by Geoffroy van Raemdonck.
The company is also facing intensifying competition while working to reduce its heavy debt load, even as some customers push back against steep price increases in the luxury sector.
In a statement, the company said it was “evaluating its operational footprint to invest resources where it has the greatest long-term potential.”
Saks said it does not expect operations to be disrupted during the bankruptcy process and will continue to honor customer programs while paying suppliers and employees.
The retailer said it has secured financing commitments totaling $1.5 billion from some of its creditors, along with an additional $240 million in “incremental liquidity” from its lenders.
Hudson’s Bay Co., the Canadian owner of Saks Fifth Avenue, split off the luxury retailer’s e-commerce business, Saks.com, in 2021. Three years later, after acquiring Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue changed its name to Saks Global.
The restructuring unfolds against a weakening global luxury backdrop. Worldwide sales of luxury goods are expected to contract for a second consecutive year in 2026 as consumers worry that the global economy will curb spending, according to a study released in November by Bain & Co.
Hudson’s Bay, Canada’s oldest company, moved in March 2025 to begin liquidating all but six of its stores.
In a move that centers Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. in the height of luxury retail, the real estate investment firm acquired the Neiman Marcus site in the Beverly Hills Golden Triangle, which spans two city blocks.
Facilitated by Newmark, the deal closed in just seven days with Saks Global as the seller.
With this purchase, Ashkenazy now holds a 350,000-square-foot portfolio in the area, which also includes the former Barneys building along with a few other holdings.
While the purchase price was not disclosed, the press release noted “recent comparable sales” including the $220 million sale of the Wilshire Rodeo Plaza and the $100 million sale of an 80,000-square-foot building in the area, which is now the new headquarters of Alo.
“This strategic acquisition significantly expands Ashkenazy’s presence in Beverly Hills and reinforces the firm’s focus on irreplaceable, best-in-class retail assets located in globally recognized luxury corridors,” the release stated.
As transactions in the area have been picking up and new developments take shape such as the largescale One Beverly Hills mixed-use project, retail vacancy remains shaky in the area. Data from CoStar reveals vacancy for Beverly Hills retail is 8%, up from 7% a year prior. Overall, L.A. County has a 6.3% retail vacancy rate, according to CBRE’s third quarter research.
More choices from the Thanksgiving lunch buffet, adding to a previous list:
The chowdown starts early. Like, a full day early.
The legendary holiday season lunch buffet at Neiman Marcus’ downtown Dallas store will start Wednesday, Nov. 26 at 11 a.m. It’s served seven days a week non-stop through Dec. 31.
Yes, it’s $60.
But part of the fun is seeing Neiman’s decorations, a tradition continued by new owner Saks.
The buffet is on the store’s sixth floor in the Zodiac restaurant. It’s open daily until 3 p.m.; 1618 Main St., 214-573-5800.
A little coffee bar on the first floor also sells Neiman’s fabled popovers, sandwiches and salads; neimanmarcus.com.
Side dishes on the daily holiday buffet at the Zodiac inside the downtown Dallas Neiman Marcus. twitter.com/NeimanMarcus
Blue Mound Cafes
The five Blue Mound Cafe locations in Fort Worth, Arlington, Saginaw and North Richland Hills will be open and will serve a turkey-and-dressing lunch for about $17.
Don’t sleep late. Blue Mound starts serving at 10:30 a.m., and the lines will only get longer, particularly in neighborhoods with few other cafes like Saginaw and North Richland Hills.
Co-owner Dustin Bunney said Blue Mound lined up 300 turkeys for lunch or its take-home family dinners.
Blue Mound Cafe is at 4120 W. Vickery Blvd. or 3701 E. Belknap St., Fort Worth; 5410 S. Blue Mound Road, Saginaw; 4650 Little Road, Arlington; or 6455 Hilltop Drive at Rufe Snow Drive, North Richland Hills.
A Blue Mound Cafe location in west Fort Worth advertises prominently that it’s open for Thanksgiving Day, as seen Nov. 18, 2025. Bud Kenbedy bud@star-telegram.com
More turkey dinners
Blue Mesa Grill, DiMassi’s, the Rim, Tannahill’s and Winslow’s have buffets and tables available.
Same for Wildcatter Ranch near Graham.
Boulevard Cafe in North Richland Hills is open and will serve an $18.99 lunch including pie.
Rex’s Bar & Grill in Fort Worth has a $27.99 lunch and dinner featuring herb-garlic-roasted turkey, and also has a giant TV on a dog-friendly patio. Neighbor Ol’ South Pancake House is also open.
Berry pancakes at Boulevard Cafe in North Richland Hills April 29, 2023. Bud Kennedy bud@star-telegram.com
The high-dollar dinners
Prime steak and seafood houses with tables available as of midweek: B&B Butchers, Capital Grille (Fort Worth and Southlake), Del Frisco’s Double Eagle, Eddie V’s, the Keg, Keller Chophouse, Lonesome Dove, Mercury Chophouse, Rosebud, Ruth’s Chris, Toro Toro, Truluck’s and Wicked Butcher.
The Gaylord Texan hotel still has tables. So do both the Live by Loews! hotel and Loews Arlington hotel, next to AT&T Stadium amid the Dallas Cowboys game atmosphere.
But the Omni and Crescent hotel brunch buffets, the Bowie House and 97 West at the Drover are mostly booked.
Cut & Bourbon’s sprawling, heated patio in Arlington has plenty of room for gatherings. Bud Kennedy bud@star-telegram.com
Bud Kennedy is celebrating his 40th year writing about restaurants in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He has written the “Eats Beat” dining column in print since 1985 and online since 1992 — that’s more than 3,000 columns about Texas cafes, barbecue, burgers and where to eat. Support my work with a digital subscription
To the youngest cohort of the workforce, a thank-you note may seem as antiquated as phone books and landlines, but the CEO of Neiman Marcus swears by them.
Geoffroy van Raemdonck, chief executive of the $5 billion-a-year luxury retailer, says he sends thank-you notes every single day. Other experts agree—sending a quick thank you after a job interview could be the difference between being hired or not. At the very least, it’s a simple way to personally show one’s gratitude in an era of technology and increasing automation.
“I was taught by great mentors of the power of sending a thank-you note,” van Raemdonck told Fortune. “It’s really important for me—the moment of ‘thank you’—because I know what it is to receive a thank you, to be acknowledged,” he said.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, van Raemdonck said he would send anywhere between three to five handwritten thank-you notes a day. During and after the pandemic, as workers switched to remote or hybrid work schedules and made going into the office from nine to five obsolete, he switched to texts, emails, and quick phone calls.
“I want to be a generous leader,” he said. “The way I remind myself is by recognizing the generosity of others.”
He described the process of expressing appreciation as a muscle: “When I get stuck every day and go back and say,…who should I thank for their contribution to my life or to the life of the organization? It really is this muscle.”
Other executives also swear by thank-you notes, especially when it comes to hiring. Jessica Liebman, chief people officer at Insider, wrote that forgetting to write a thank-you email after an interview is the number-one mistake that gets job candidates booted from the hiring process.
“As a hiring manager, you should always expect a thank-you email, and you should never make an offer to someone who neglected to send one,” Liebman wrote.
The email reflects two important things, according to Liebman: It shows that the person wants the job, and that they are “eager, organized, and well mannered enough to send the note.” (However, she warns against sending handwritten letters after an interview.)
The death of the thank-you note
Gen Zers and millennials may be to blame for the death of the thank-you note. As younger workers enter the workforce, they’ve turned professional norms on their heads—from bending the work dress code, to rejecting assignments and turning down job offers in the name of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
Here’s how one 27-year-old explained it to the Washington Post’s “Miss Manners” advice column: “It’s not that we don’t appreciate you or that we feel entitled to gifts. It’s that our way of saying ‘thank you’ is different. We don’t expect to receive thank-you cards, so please don’t expect us to send them.”
“Miss Manners” acknowledged that while etiquette changes with the times, expressing gratitude is always necessary, no matter what generation the person belongs to. And others advocate for the power of handwritten thank-you notes in an increasingly digital age.
“In my opinion, old fashioned thank-you notes matter more now than they have in the past because so few people write them,” etiquette coach Maggie Oldham told the New York Times. “Handwritten notes are a differentiator. They show the person you’re thanking that you made a sincere effort to acknowledge their act of kindness or generosity.”
Van Raemdonck believes sending thank-you notes not only makes him a more thoughtful leader, but a better person.
“I know the impact when you receive one. But frankly, the impact is equally great for the one who gives a thank you,” van Raemdonck said. “It’s a good way to remind ourselves that we can do great every day.”
Every now and then, something spurs my inner splurger and until I treat myself to something shiny and new, I can’t seem to think about any thing else. When that happens, 9 times out of 10, I’ll head over to Neiman Marcus, either online or in person, to really bask in the luxury experience. But this time when I felt it coming on, I found a lot more than one item I wanted to invest in. Rather, I found 30, each one more perfect for spring than the next.
In total, I scrolled through more than 4,000 items, so really, it’s a miracle that I was able to edit my wishlist down to just 30 pieces, especially given the quality of the retailer’s current offering. From cashmere polos and pencil skirts from The Row to studded ballet flats courtesy of JW Anderson, the list ahead is a treasure trove of decadence that’s just waiting to provide me with my next big purchase. Who knows? Perhaps there’s something below for you too.
Looking for another excuse to whip out your credit card and expand your fragrance collection? Here’s one: British luxury fragrance brand Molton Brown has a line of unique and sophisticated perfumes you’ll want to get your hands on. For a fragrance novice, Molton Brown is the perfect entry into the brilliant (and often complex) world of luxury fragrances that, while at a higher price point, offer the wearer an olfactory experience like no other. Molton Brown has established a reputation for itself as one of the premiere British makers of fragrance since the brand was founded in 1971. Hungry for more? Keep reading to find out which of its iconic scents should be on your radar.
“NMG is a relationship business,” said Geoffroy van Raemdonck, Neiman Marcus Group CEO.
Photo credit Jesse Crimes, courtesy of Neiman Marcus Group
Everyone in retail has heard the apocryphal story about how Stanley Marcus, known to all as Mr. Stanley, would greet his customers at the Neiman Marcus door in Dallas every morning. He knew his customers by name, knew what they wanted and treated them as the VIPs they were. They returned the favor by giving Mr. Stanley and his Neiman Marcus store their lifelong loyalty.
But then Neiman Marcus was sold to Carter-Hawley Hale, Mr. Stanley went into emeritus mode and the company grew. It’s not that his single-minded dedication to service passed away, but the “money men” took over and the primary goal became servicing the bottom line.
For any retailer, running the business primarily by and for the balance sheet is a mistake, but for a luxury retailer like Neiman Marcus, it’s the kiss of death. And that nearly came for Neiman Marcus Group in early 2020 when it was forced to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
After successfully emerging from bankruptcy proceedings, CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck made all the tough business decisions, including closing 22 stores, most painfully, its prized NYC Hudson Yards location.
Starting over with a reduced footprint of 37 stores and 10,000 associates, he had to build the company back up and did it by resurrecting Mr. Stanley’s customer-first philosophy in a “Revolutionizing Luxury Experiences” strategic plan with its cornerstone being a five-point NMG|Way corporate culture transformation.
Van Raemdonck and his team have been on a challenging two-year journey that is producing needed and, from an outsider’s perspective truly remarkable results. During fiscal year 2022 ending July, the company reported it delivered over $5 billion in gross merchandise value with an 11% increase in EBITDA margin over previous year.
Comparable store sales advanced over 30% compared to last year’s period, producing $495 million in adjusted EBITDA. The company touts investments in technology and digital capabilities as pivotal to its integrated luxury retail model that combines in-store, e-commerce and remote selling.
Specific investments include the acquisition of Stylze to power the customers’ omnichannel journey and Farfetch Platform Solutions to enhance its Bergdorf Goodman e-commerce platform.
Technology-powered service
But the technology investment that may be most impactful for this luxury retailer is its behind-the-scenes’ proprietary Connect application used by the company’s 3,000+ selling associates to engage their customers remotely.
It allows them to share styling advice, product recommendations, personalized look books, and complete transactions. For example, an average of 1.5 million texts and personalized emails are sent to customers per month.
Through Connect, the personal connection between the customers and the sales associate is amplified, effectively teleporting Mr. Stanley’s personal customer service approach to the 21st century.
The Connect tool supports a high-level of personalized customer service that AI and bots can’t match. It extends personal customer service to more customers and reaches beyond the store’s four walls to wherever the customer is.
Poised for growth
This new way of personally serving customers fits into the “Growth Mindset,” one of the five pillars of the NMG|Way culture transformation. The growth mindset calls on all across the company to adapt, embrace change, accept new challenges and find new opportunities to do better “always.”
With its typical selling associates having worked nearly a decade with the company, they’ve embraced this new technology-enhanced way of serving customers.
More than one-third of its selling associates generate over $1 million in customer spend per year. Further, customers who engage across multiple channels, like in-store and through remote selling, spend five times more than those who shop exclusively in one channel.
New ways of working
This enhanced, service-from-anywhere approach also supports another NMG|Way pillar called WOW, meaning “Way Of Working.”
The NMG corporate structure is envisioned as a network of connected hubs that “serves its associates and their needs,” such that an associate may have a working hub from home. Its stores and distribution centers act as hubs and a new corporate hub is being built in uptown Dallas, centrally located between its Downtown Dallas and NorthPark flagship stores.
“Our NMG|WOW philosophy empowers our associates to work whenever, however and wherever to achieve their best results,” said Eric Severson, EVP, Chief People and Belonging officer.
The WOW hub strategy results in greater job satisfaction, which translates into happier employees who then make happier customers. And happier customers are loyal. The top 2% of customers average over $25,000 annually through 25+ transactions and account for approximately 40% of total sales.
All belong
Loyal customers “Belong,” a third pillar in the NMG|Way strategy, as do valued employees. And that extends to the wider luxury business community. The most coveted luxury brands want to belong to Neiman Marcus too.
Belonging means diversity, equity and inclusion across the corporate culture, which aligns with the values of legacy luxury brands, like Loewe, Prada, Valentino, Burberry and Balmain, which did exclusive collections for NMG this past year. It also has helped bring 200+ new brands representing emerging and diverse designers into the NMG family.
ESG impact
The fourth pillar of the NMG|Way culture is its environmental, social and governance (ESG) program. The company just released its first ESG report, entitled “Our Journey to Revolutionize Impact.”
Through its forward-looking ESG strategy, it aims to advance sustainable products and services, cultivate the culture of belonging across all constituencies, including employees, business partners, brands and customers, and lead with “love” in and for its communities.
The report outlines NMG’s 2025 and 2030 goals, including extending the life of over a million luxury items through circular services such as mending, alternations, restoration, resale and donations, and increasing revenues from sustainable and ethical products. It will help customers make these better choices through Sustainable Edits in Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman.
And central to its ESG goals is to increase inclusion and diversity in an already highly inclusive, diverse culture.
Common values
The final pillar in NMG|Way culture is Values which is the thread that ties everything together. “NMG is a relationship business,” said CEO van Raemdonck and relationships are based on shared values.
The values espoused encourage associates to be bold, be memorable, be trustworthy, be all heart and be the best. And the values are reinforced by the NMG| WOW (Way of Working) principles of working smarter, being present, integrating life and work and feeling empowered to be empowered.
“What’s driving demand today is something special in the service and the experience and the story,” van Raemdonck shared. “The competitive advantage in retail is to do everything in service of the customer.”
The NMG|Way culture is a guiding light for associates to deliver that “something special” to customers, as well as to their work colleagues, the company’s brands and business partners and out into the wider community.
It codifies the NMG corporate culture to make the experience working for, working with and patronizing the company as unique as the shopping experiences are with Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman.
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