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From Home Furnishing Business
Pier 1 Redesigns Corporate Workforce
March 22,
2019 by Laurie Northington in Business Strategy, Industry 
Pier 1 Imports (NYSE: PIR) has announced an organizational redesign of its corporate workforce to better align its operations with its long-term strategy and enable the company to improve agility, reduce costs and reinvest in building core competencies.
The organizational redesign is being completed as part of a broader review of Pier 1’s operations, undertaken with the assistance of outside consultants, to enhance the company’s processes, capabilities and cost structure.
Pier 1 established the company’s new organizational structure based on industry benchmarks for each department, with changes including the elimination of certain roles, a realignment of responsibilities for some associates, new reporting structures and the creation of new positions.
“Since stepping into the role of interim CEO in December 2018, my primary focus has been to work with the leadership team in developing an action plan to return the company to growth and set Pier 1 up for future success,” said Cheryl Bachelder, interim CEO and a member of its board of directors. “We have approached this important task with a sense of urgency, establishing a narrow set of immediate strategic priorities and leveraging opportunities to improve how we operate and deliver the style, value and selection of merchandise that our customer wants."
“Our new organizational structure sets the right foundation for a series of steps we plan to take in the coming months across the areas of merchandising, marketing, margins and costs. This redesign organizes our leaders and associates around critical competencies and will enable us to reorient how we invest in our company to support the business over the long term,” added Bachelder.
The organizational redesign will result in a net reduction of approximately 20 positions, including the filling of open positions and additional new hires Pier 1 expects to complete over the course of fiscal 2020, and is expected to be approximately net neutral to earnings for the fiscal year. The redesign is not expected to impact Pier 1 stores or store associates.