Investor Relations

Macy's annual report can easily be accessed through the company’s website on their For Investors Tab, by clicking on the Annual Report / Fact Book tab on the left side of the screen. Once there you can decide to look at the company’s annual report, which is mostly financial information, or their Fact Book for 2009. Being that the annual report for 2009 is not yet ready, you can access the 2009 Fact Book, which gives more information about the company. The goal of Macy’s annual report is to basically give the facts about how well the company did or didn’t do in that year. Macy’s Fact Book has more information other than numbers and statistics about the company.

One of the first things in Macy’s annual report is a letter to the company’s shareholders, written by Terry J Lundgren, the company’s Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. In the 2008 letter, Lundgren talks about how the economy had an affect on the company. Yet despite the hardships from the economy, Macy’s was still able to outperform almost all of their competitors. He talks about the company in three different areas, Organizational Improvements, Other Strategic Advancements and Financial Actions.

Under Organizational Improvements, Lundgren talks about the pilot of My Macy’s, which was created based on customer research and input from store managers, senior executives, merchandise vendors and industry exports. The goal of My Macy’s is to increase the growth in sales by making sure that customers find a variety of merchandise and have a shopping experience that is specific to their needs. Lundgren explains why My Macy’s is beneficial to the company and how it will help them continue to succeed.

The letter continues to talk about how Macy’s and Bloomingdales made more advancements in areas that are strategic priorities. The last part of the letter talks about financial actions that the company took in 2008 and early into 2009, to increase profits, conserve cash, modify balance the sheet and maintain investor confidence in the company.

Reading this letter I think that investors will continue to have faith in the company. The tone of the letter is informative. Its purpose is to relay the facts about what the company has been up to in the previous year, to investors. And despite 2008 being a hard year because of the economy, Lundgren does a good job of expressing that there is no need to worry about Macy's future. I find the letter to be believable, because he uses facts to support what he is saying about the company.

Press releases can be found on Macy’s website again under the For Investors Tab, but by clicking the Press Releases tab instead. The company released a press release on February 23, 2010 about their fourth quarter results, called, Macy's, Inc. Reports Strong Fourth Quarter Results That Exceed Expectations. The beginning of the press release is reader friendly, but as it continues it becomes more technical and harder to follow. There are two quotes from Lundgren in the release, both are well written and believable. Being the CEO, Chairman and President of the company it also sounds credible. Both quotes instill confidence in investors because he talks about how despite the fact that the economy is bad right now, Macy’s is doing well, and better than they had expected.