J.C. Penney Co. to cut 2,000 jobs, close three facilities related to troubled catalogue division

<br>PLANO, Texas (AP) _ J.C. Penney Co. said Friday that it will cut about 2,000 jobs and close three facilities related to its catalog business, which has been struggling with falling sales. <br><br>The

Friday, January 10th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

PLANO, Texas (AP) _ J.C. Penney Co. said Friday that it will cut about 2,000 jobs and close three facilities related to its catalog business, which has been struggling with falling sales.

The company said it plans to close a catalog-fulfillment center in Atlanta and telemarketing centers in Atlanta and Lenexa, Kan., by the end of the second quarter.

The moves come amid a restructuring of the catalog business that the company expects to save about $30 million a year beginning in 2004. It also reduced the size of its Big Book catalog and dropped several unprofitable specialty catalogs.

December's sales for the catalog division were down 23.7 percent compared with the previous year. At the same time, the company's department stores reported better than expected sales, up 4.7 percent at those stores open at least a year.

J.C. Penney also operates about 1,060 department stores and 2,600 Eckerd drug stores. It had about 250,000 employees in late October.