Macy's closing 45 more stores in 2021 as part of its restructuring

Macy's will close another 45 stores this year as part of a three-year plan aimed at keeping the department store chain profitable, the company said. 

A company spokesperson said Tuesday that Macy's is "committed to rightsizing our store fleet" by focusing on high trafficked locations within malls. 

"To that end, we announced several store closures today that align to the guidance we provided in February 2020," the company said. "These closures bring us closer to achieving the right mix of mall-based stores."

The company did not provide a list of which stores will close. Nor did it say how many jobs would be lost.

Last year, Macy's announced its Polaris strategy, which called for closing 125 stores in what it called "lower tier malls" and laying off 2,000 corporate workers. Under the plan, Macy's said it will invest more in its online store and mobile app, which officials said account for more than $6 billion per year in sales. Another 80 stores are slated to close in 2022 and 2023 under Polaris. 

Macy's officials said they expect Polaris will save the company about $1.5 billion over the next three years and has saved $600 million in 2020. CEO Jeff Gennette said last February that Polaris will give Macy's "sustainable, profitable growth."

In its most recent earnings, Macy's reported $91 million in losses compared to the same period in 2019. Revenue for the third quarter of 2020 fell to $4 billion compared to $5.1 billion during the same quarter in 2019. 

Macy's closed 29 stores in 2020 after recording higher-than-expected 2019 holiday season sales. The company ended 2020 with roughly 540 Macy's locations.