Kellwood Co. announced its biggest restructuring move yet, with about 10% of the company's nearly 2,000 jobs affected. The company is relocating the operations end of its moderate lifestyle division from New York to the company's Los Angeles offices in mid-2009. Additionally, the company cut some corporate posts in New York and support function jobs in St. Louis, and is closing its customer service office in Rutherford, Tenn., during the second quarter of 2009. In total, about 200 jobs are affected. Kellwood offered relocation packages to about half the lifestyle brand team members impacted, and the company anticipates that about half of those offered will accept and move to Los Angeles. The brands' sales, marketing and retail planning teams will stay in New York along with the showrooms, but the rest of the operations will relocate to Los Angeles. For Sag Harbor and Koret, the move will be completed by May 31, and for Briggs, Aug. 15. The move to California frees up a lot of New York real estate, while moving the remaining part of the moderate brand teams to Los Angeles-based offices, where the junior brands XOXO, Jolt and My Michelle are based-and where Kellwood already controls the building's additional space. The brand leaders at the relocated moderate brands will report to Arthur Gordon, ceo of Kellwood West. The operational members of the team will report to the Los Angeles-based leaders of their respective groups.

Bob Ross was named to the position of Vice President of Retail for Kellwood Co., according to Michael Kramer, Chief Executive Officer of Kellwood. In this new role, Ross will be responsible for the retail operations of the Kellwood portfolio of brands, and the retail store expansion with a particular focus on Vince. Most recently, he served as Vice President of Retail at Lacoste, where in 12 years he developed and implemented a retail strategy that resulted in exceptional growth in retail locations and sales.

Kellwood Co is hoping to sell one of its acquisitions: Hollywould Inc. Kellwood said that it and Holly Dunlap, creative director of the Hollywould brand, have "mutually agreed to explore a range of strategic alternatives for the business". Although Kellwood would not give details as to why it wants to sell Hollywould, the move precedes the takeover of Kellwood by Sun Capital Securities Group. Dunlap could not be reached for comment, but she told Footwear News that it appeared that Kellwood wants to focus on growing its bigger brands, going forward.