Sears apparel executive named president and CEO of Lands’ End

Sears, Roebuck and Co. has named Mindy Mears, its top apparel executive, to head its Lands’ End unit as president and CEO. The move should help Sears leverage the Lands’ End apparel brand in driving up store sales, an analyst says. Mears has been overseeing the Lands’ End business as executive vice president and manager of apparel for all of Sears since the departure last August of former Lands’ End CEO David Dyer.

Meads, 51, who will retain her position as Sears executive vice president for apparel, reporting to Sears CEO Alan Lacy, is now in a stronger position to control how Sears can build on the Lands’ End brand and produce more cross-selling in its stores, says Heather Brilliant, an analyst who follows Sears for investment research firm Morningstar Inc. "She has a lot of challenges – for example, promoting the Lands’ End and Sears brands concurrently."

While Lands’ End products have been selling well under the Sears corporate umbrella, Meads still faces the challenge of leveraging the Lands’ End name to bring more shoppers to Sears. "Sears has been hoping to get Lands’ End buyers in Sears stores to also buy Sears apparel, but that hasn’t happened much so far," Brilliant says.

But she notes that Meads is well regarded for her apparel expertise and should be a good fit now for Lands’ End and helping Sears build on its reputation in apparel. She’s pretty well regarded in apparel," Brilliant says. "This promotion wasn’t unexpected."

Meads served as a merchandising executive at Lands’ End for more than 10 years, most recently as executive vice president of merchandising and design, before Sears acquired Lands’ End early last year. Sears named her executive vice president of apparel in April 2003.