JCPenney Closing Stores to Maximize Long Term Growth

Plano, TX—In a strategic effort to maximize long term growth and profitability, J. C. Penney Company, Inc. plans to close certain underperforming store locations, wind down its catalog and outlet operations, and streamline its call center operations and custom decorating business.

The closing stores include five JCPenney department stores located in Morrow, Ga.; West Dundee, Ill.; Des Moines, Iowa; High Point, N.C.; and Culpeper, Va.; and one JCPenney Home Store located in Duluth, Ga.

The company also plans to wind down its catalog business, including exiting its catalog outlets. This business includes a total of 19 outlet stores, which carry a significant amount of catalog merchandise. This will occur over the course of 2011 and 2012. Additionally, the company will be consolidating its furniture outlet business, closing one store located in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. Upon the closing of this store, the company will have two remaining furniture outlet stores to handle the disposition of surplus furniture from its retail store operations.

The company plans to close its call center facilities in Grand Rapids, Mich. and Albuquerque, N.M., and consolidate all activity supporting its department store and online customers into three existing facilities in Columbus, Ohio; Pittsburgh; and Milwaukee.

As part of the reorganization of its custom decorating business, the company will close its Sacramento, Calif., custom decorating fabrication facility, leaving one remaining facility in Statesville, N.C., where it will increase its staffing to support customer demand.

The company will initiate these actions over the course of 2011. During 2012, the first full year of implementation, the company expects that these actions will result in a positive impact to earnings of approximately $25 to $30 million.

JCPenney currently operates more than 1,100 department stores throughout the United States and Puerto Rico, as well as one of the largest apparel and home furnishing websites, www.jcp.com.

For more information, visit the corporate website at www.jcpenney.net.