President & Director, DILLARDS INC -CL A
PJN Dillards Tour Alex Dillard Testimonial
PJN Dillards Tour Alex Dillard Testimonial.
About Alex Dillard
In a 2021 testimonial, Alex Dillard discussed the launch of new Nygard shops within Dillard's, describing the merchandise as coming from "one of our best suppliers." Dillard characterized Peter Nygard as a "true partner," stating that their companies work together on product development, distribution, and inventory management. He said that working with Nygard had "changed the way I think about the retail business" and that implementing Nygard's logistics and resupply ideas had improved Dillard's turnover and gross margin. Dillard also spoke about the companies' strategic relationship, calling it "maybe the strongest partnership there is in the industry" and attributing its success to trust. He referenced a new retail system called NR5, which he described as "a completely new way of retailing" that is "totally planned and driven by the computer." Dillard added that the partnership had produced "phenomenal results" over the previous five to six years)Skip
Transcript (2 segments)
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Alex Dillard0:00
We are launching some new Nygard shops, which have some better merchandise from one of our best suppliers, Mr. Nygard's company in Canada. As you know, he has been a supplier of ours for many years. And Allison Daly, which has been very successful. He also does Tanjay, which we have in numerous stores. He does a tremendous amount of work in Westbound and he also does the Investment Pant that's been so successful in our stores. He has been a great partner. And I don't use the word partner lightly. Most of our suppliers are in fact vendors, but Peter is a true partner. We work together to develop better product, better distribution, and to stay in stock better in the stores without being overstocked. I think the Nygard that we are now moving forward with will be an opportunity to reach a whole new category of customer that we have not reached with Nygard product before. A few years ago, I was lucky enough to meet Peter Nygard. The first time I met him, I recognized that he was different from most of the suppliers that we deal with. His view was that it was a partnership between the supplier and the retail store to sell merchandise to the consumer, as opposed to most suppliers' view, which was to sell to Dillard's and hope that we sold it to the consumer. He is a logistics genius. He has more ideas in a day than most of our suppliers have in a year. I think that working with him has really changed the way I think about the retail business. Trying to implement some of his ideas with other suppliers, everywhere we've been able to use his logistics and resupply ideas, our business has improved dramatically. Our turnovers go up, our gross margin goes up. And we couldn't ask for a better partner than Peter.
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Peter Nygard2:06
2007 is going to be the most exciting year in the history of our company, here at Nygard, maybe the most exciting with Dillard's as well. We're going to launch the Nygard Fashion World to be the centerpiece for your fashion floors. Come a long way together. Our partnership is strong. Maybe our partnership is the strongest partnership there is in the industry. Certainly a lot of people have been giving us awards for this strategic relationship we have. And I think it's through these strong partnerships that we've been able to achieve some phenomenal results in the past. The past five years, six years, look at Allison Daly, Investments, Westbound, Tanjay, Nygard Collection, and now you'll see what's really going to happen in Fashion World. Most of that is built on the word trust. The very, very strong trusting bonding relationship we have between our two companies. And that trust has started at the very top. When I first met the Dillards from 10 years ago, there was an instant bonding. Subsequently, I worked very, very closely particularly with Alex Tiller. I must say, I find him to be the sharpest in the industry, mathematically, creatively, fashion sense, hands-on. I've never enjoyed working with anyone as much as Alex. And it's with that relationship that we were able to develop a new way of doing business called NR5. NR5 is a completely new way of retailing. It's a new system, a totally planned system driven by the computer. It's utilizing really what Nygard stands for, where fashion meets technology. It's also the most powerful tool in the industry today, believe me. Most of you probably have seen the kind of results it's been able to produce in the last two or three years. Those results will now be passed on with the Nygard Fashion World. It is a tool that cannot fail. We know exactly who we're catering to. We cater to that more rounded customer, sizes 12, 14s, Missy customer, age group 30 to 60 year olds. But we make them feel young, we make them look young. We are fashion central to them. We make their women's fashion wardrobe favorites. We've always done that all our life, and nobody does it better. We have a huge advertising program lined up. We've already done 12 months of advertising in Times Square promoting the Dillard's and the Nygard name together. As we hit each city, we'll go on an extensive advertising campaign there promoting Nygard again, and capped off with personal visits. And I am so looking forward to working with you, and I ask for your full cooperation to make it the biggest success story ever in the history of Dillard's and Nygard. Thanks. Looking forward to seeing you.