Zumiez undertakes cost saving measures

Zumiez Inc. has announced that all Zumiez brand stores in the U.S. and Canada as well as the company’s Blue Tomato stores in Europe and Fast Times stores in Australia will remain closed until further notice. The company said in a statement that it ended fiscal 2019 with over 250 million dollars in cash and no debt. The company has initiated several measures to reduce expense and preserve cash.

The steps taken by the company include suspending hiring, laying off all of part-time staff, eliminating substantially all planned fiscal 2020 bonuses and delaying majority of merit raises, lowering operating costs, including travel, marketing and other non-essential items, reducing capital spend by delaying or cancelling select projects, reducing planned inventory receipts by cancelling or delaying orders, suspending rent payments while the company negotiates rent relief with landlords and delaying or cancelling planned new store openings, extending payment terms for both merchandise and non-merchandise vendor invoices and pausing its share repurchase program until there is more visibility to store openings.