Kohl’s has been reviving its fashion offering recently and attracting unusual bedfellows like Amazon. Now, its latest partner will lend classic style to the department store chain’s apparel assortment.
On Monday, Kohl’s announced a new partnership with The Land’s End, the Wisconsin-based clothier founded in 1963. Under the terms of their deal, Land’s End will sell its entire assortment of women’s, men’s, kids and home merchandise on Kohls.com, in addition to incorporating a selection of seasonal goods like autumn-ready outerwear and warm-weather swimwear to shop-in-shops located in 150 stores.
Lands’ End will fulfill all online orders. Both programs are slated to begin in Fall 2020.
“The addition of Lands’ End, a market leader in the classic, casual lifestyle, into Kohl’s brand portfolio further strengthens our product leadership and our ability to deliver unmatched national brands to Kohl’s customers,” Kohl’s CEO Michelle Gass said. “Lands’ End brings its strong brand recognition, leadership in casual style and fit authority, and gives new and existing customers something to discover at Kohl’s.”
As a label whose clothing is “synonymous with fit and quality,” Land’s End “brings well-crafted, timeless pieces in a wide range of sizes across women’s, men’s and kids categories to Kohl’s customers,” Doug Howe, chief merchandising officer at Kohl’s, added.
The move is the latest in a series of partnerships, like tie-ups with Aldi and Planet Fitness, in addition to Amazon, that Kohl’s hopes will augment its customer base. The Amazon arrangement allows the tech titan’s customers to returns their orders in Kohl’s stores and drive traffic for the store-based retailer. And as Kohl’s scales back its square footage to better serve shoppers, the deal to lease space to 10 Planet Fitness gyms helps to better utilize its footprint while maximizing synergies with the its workout apparel and footwear assortment.
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Land’s End offers an enduring strength in seasonal goods. “With their exceptionally strong seasonal businesses, we are especially thrilled to offer Lands’ End outerwear and swimwear for the entire family at Kohl’s and to bring a compelling brand experience to life in select Kohl’s stores,” Howe said.
Kohl’s could use the help. For the fourth quarter ended Feb. 2, net income fell 41.9 percent to $272 million, or $1.67 a diluted share, on a 3.4 percent net sales decline to $6.5 million. Total revenues slipped 3.3 percent to $6.8 million.
The new partnership benefits Lands’ End as well. “We’re thrilled to be partnering with Kohl’s as we work to meet our customers wherever, however and whenever they want to shop, whether’s that’s online, at our retail stores or–as is often the case–at Kohl’s,” Land’s End CEO Jerome Griffith said. “We know our customers consistently list Kohl’s as one of their primary shopping destinations, and we place great value in meeting them where they are already shopping.”
Lands’s End is slated to post fourth-quarter earnings on Tuesday. For the third quarter ended Nov. 1, the company said net income rose 9.5 percent to $3.6 million, or 11 cents a diluted share, on a 0.5 percent slip in revenues to $340.0 million. The slip in revenues reflected 89 fewer Lands’ End shops at Sears. Adjusting for the impact from Sears operations, revenue would have increased by 4.7 percent.