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Top execs leave Pier 1's Cargo division

By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, September 23, 2001

FORT WORTH, Texas — James Allen and Lisa Thornton, president and executive vice president of merchandising and marketing, respectively, have left Pier 1 Import's youth-oriented Cargo Furniture subsidiary.

Pier 1 Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Marvin Girouard would not identify their replacements. In a conference call with the investment community, he said Cargo's merchandising temporarily is being led by a man who came to Pier 1 after six years at This End Up.

Girouard said later that Pier 1 hasn't decided on permanent replacements and is "considering two or three alternatives."

In the conference call, Girouard said the company made the moves in early August. "I think we were really kind of stuck in the past way of managing and we wanted to change it in a way that Pier 1 felt could really accelerate (Cargo's) growth," he said.

In addition to Allen and Thornton's departure, Girouard indicated that Pier 1 made a few other personnel changes at Cargo, but noted it had a "good nucleus."

Allen was named president of Cargo earlier this year after Pier

1's February acquisition of the 18-store chain from Tandycrafts. Thornton, who had been president, moved to executive vice president of merchandising and marketing.

Thornton and Allen have not finalized plans going forward, said a spokesperson for the former executives who asked not to be identified.

"We had two … people in top leadership positions … that we just felt like after six months that it was not in their best interest and our best interest," Girouard said in the conference call.

He said Pier 1 had identified others who "really deserved great opportunity, some from Pier 1 and some from outside," he said. "We know how to run multiple chains, and some people we found in (Cargo) didn't have that mindset."

Girouard said Pier 1 plans to open eight to a dozen Cargo stores next fiscal year and focus on the youth furniture category.

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