Monday June 21 9:21 AM ET
Federated To Fill Online Orders
CINCINNATI (Reuters) - Federated Department Stores Inc. (NYSE:FD - news), parent of Macy's, Bloomingdale's and other store chains, said Monday its Fingerhut unit would fill Internet orders for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT - news) and eToys Inc.
Financial terms of the agreements were not disclosed.
Federated said its Fingerhut Business Services Inc. would handle order fulfillment from its warehouse and distribution capabilities at Fingerhut operations in Provo, Utah.
Fingerhut, a catalog and Internet retailer acquired by Federated earlier this year, provides services including order management, Web and phone order processing and order fulfillment, which can include merchandise procurement. The company also provides product receipt, warehousing and shipment, payment processing, customer service, merchandise returns processing, telemarketing and marketing support.
In addition to Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, and eToys, an online toy store, Fingerhut provides online services to 22 other companies. ''This is a relatively small but increasingly important segment of Fingerhut's total business, which we see as a definite win-win opportunity for everyone involved,'' said Ronald Tysoe, Federated's vice chairman, in a statement.
''Agreements with retailers such as Wal-Mart and eToys represent a recognition of Fingerhut's extensive fulfillment and distribution capabilities, and from Federated's perspective this represents an opportunity to further maximize our return on investment from the Fingerhut acquisition,'' he said.
Friday, shares of Federated, which operates more than 400 department stores, closed at $52.31. Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart finished at $43.44 and eToys, based in Santa Monica, Calif., ended at $39.19.
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