ProfitLogic, the industry-leading provider of Retail Profit Optimization solutions that deliver the highest return on retailers’ inventory investments, today announced that Reitmans (Canada) Limited (TSE: RET-T, RET-NV.A-T), Canada’s largest women’s specialty retailer will adopt ProfitLogic’s Assortment Execution solutions to enhance assortment and allocation decision-making throughout the season and improve merchandise flow to its more than 850 stores.  Reitmans will use ProfitLogic’s entire Assortment Execution suite including Assortment Optimization, Allocation Optimization, Size Profiling, Optimized Pre-Pack Configuration and Optimized History. Reitmans’ achieved significant financial success in its fiscal year ended January 29, 2005. Compared to the previous fiscal year, the company increased sales 7% to $912 million, operating earnings were up 74% to $96 million, and net earnings improved 67% to $66 million.  In an effort to continue this impressive fiscal performance, the retailer recognized the opportunity Assortment Execution presented to gain additional financial benefit.  The management team turned to ProfitLogic to replace its existing labor-intensive Excel-based merchandising process, and the retailer expects the solution to enable its merchants to be more proactive in decision-making and spend less time gathering data and recapping history.  

In its search, Reitmans identified ProfitLogic as the solution provider that really understood the implications of managing by color and size.  The specialty retailer selected ProfitLogic Size Profiling to match store size need to customer demand, Optimized Pre-Pack Configuration to ensure the right mix of sizes are included in each pre-pack, and Optimized History to identify and correct for missed opportunities from past markdowns, store transfers, and stockouts.

“Assortment Execution supports our overarching goal of capturing additional sales and gross margin,” said Doug Deruchie, CFO of Reitmans. “Having the right assortment of merchandise in the right sizes in each store every time customers shop will be of significant benefit for our high-volume/low square-footage stores.”  

“ProfitLogic provides easy access to SKU/Store information and the ability to plan at the market level, which will enhance the quality and precision of our assortment analysis and planning,” said Diane Randolph, Director of Merchandising Business Processes at Reitmans.  “The ability to view assortments across departments or color stories will allow us to manage collections and ensure a balanced presentation for all stores.”

“Infusing analytics into the merchandising process is a powerful area of opportunity for any retailer looking to take merchandising to the next level,” said Tom Ebling, Chairman and CEO of ProfitLogic.  “Both retailers delivering strong results and those looking for a quick boost to lagging store performance can benefit from applying powerful insight into customer demand to the merchandising process.”

ProfitLogic’s Assortment Execution solutions help merchandising strategies reach their highest potential by aligning financial plans with merchandising objectives and ensuring proper execution at the store.  By using insight into customer demand, merchants can make more informed decisions and better tailor assortments to local demand, flow and allocate merchandise in the right sizes and pre-packs, and ultimately better manage the entire lifecycle of their merchandise. 

About Reitmans Reitmans, Canada's largest women's specialty retailer, was founded in 1926 by Herman and Sarah Reitman. Their traditional "general store" opened on St. Lawrence Boulevard in Montréal, Quebec, Canada. The immense popularity of their clothing line prompted them to open their second store, which exclusively sold women's apparel.  Almost 80 years later, Reitmans (Canada) Ltd. has grown to include over 850 stores operating under six banners: Reitmans, Smart Set, RW & CO., Penningtons, Thyme Maternity, and Addition-Elle.

About ProfitLogic ProfitLogic provides an industry-leading suite of Retail Profit Optimization solutions designed for retailers whose priority is getting the highest return on inventory investments. ProfitLogic's solutions provide merchants with day-to-day operational decision support and workflow for making better-informed assortment execution, allocation and fashion replenishment, promotion, pricing and markdown decisions. ProfitLogic has delivered fast, flexible solutions with significant financial benefit to industry leading retailers such as American Eagle Outfitters, AnnTaylor, Bloomingdale's, Burlington Coat Factory, Charming Shoppes, The Children’s Place, Gap Inc., including: Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy; JCPenney, Loehmann’s, Marshall Field's, Meijer Stores, New York & Company, Nordstrom, Northern Group Retail, Reitmans, Sears, ShopKo Stores and Toys R Us. For more information about Cambridge, Mass.-based ProfitLogic, call 617-621-5500 or visit www.profitlogic.com.