Whitehall Jewellers Announces Receipt of Resignation Letter from Beryl Raff and Discusses Financing Issues and Delay in Reportin
08 Settembre 2005 - 1:00PM
Business Wire
Whitehall Jewellers, Inc. (NYSE:JWL) (the "Company") announced that
it received a letter yesterday from Beryl Raff advising that she
has resigned all positions with the Company. Ms. Raff had
previously been named as Chief Executive Officer and was expected
to commence full-time employment with the Company and join its
board of directors in mid-September. She also indicated in the
letter that she will be returning compensation previously paid to
her by the Company. The Company is currently assessing its legal
and other alternatives in light of Ms. Raff's letter. Whitehall
also announced that it is reviewing its financial situation in
light of current and forecasted operating results and management
changes. The Company believes it needs additional capital to
support its operations. The Company is evaluating various
alternatives to meet these needs, including the raising of
additional debt or equity financing. The Company has requested
temporary extensions of payment terms from some of its key
suppliers in order to manage liquidity and has also slowed its
accounts payable schedules generally. In addition, the Company
plans to retain restructuring professionals to assist it. The
Company is actively engaged in discussing alternatives with its
bank lenders and other parties. There is no assurance that the
discussions will result in additional financing or that an
alternative transaction will be available. If the Company is not
able to procure additional financing or otherwise able to obtain
additional liquidity, it may be forced to pursue other
alternatives, such as a restructuring of its obligations. The
Company also announced that it does not expect to be in a position
to file its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, including financial
results for its second fiscal quarter, on a timely basis. The
Company expects to report a net loss for its second fiscal quarter.
Whitehall Jewellers, Inc. is a national specialty retailer of fine
jewelry, operating 388 stores in 38 states. The Company operates
stores in regional and super regional shopping malls under the
names Whitehall Co. Jewellers, Lundstrom Jewelers and Marks Bros.
Jewelers. Safe Harbor Statement This release contains
forward-looking statements (as such term is defined in Section 27A
of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934) and information relating to the Company that
are based on the current beliefs of our management as well as
assumptions made by and information currently available to
management including statements related to the markets for our
products, general trends and trends in our operations or financial
results, plans, expectations, estimates and beliefs. In addition,
when used in this report, the words "anticipate," "believe,"
"estimate," "expect," "intend," "plan," "predict," "opinion" and
similar expressions and their variants, as they relate to us or our
management, may identify forward-looking statements. Such
statements reflect our judgment as of the date of this press
release with respect to future events, the outcome of which is
subject to certain risks, including the factors described above and
below, which may have a significant impact on our business,
operating results or financial condition. Investors are cautioned
that these forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain.
Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or
should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results or
outcomes may vary materially from those described herein. The
Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking
statements. The following factors, among others, may impact
forward-looking statements contained in this release: (1) our
ability to execute our business strategy and our continued net
losses and declines in comparable store sales; (2) our ability to
manage our liquidity and to obtain adequate financing on acceptable
terms and the effect on us if an event of default were to occur
pursuant to our revolving credit facility; (3) a change in economic
conditions or the financial markets which negatively impacts the
retail sales environment and reduces discretionary spending on
goods such as jewelry; (4) reduced levels of mall traffic caused by
economic or other factors; (5) increased competition from specialty
jewelry retail stores, the Internet and mass merchant discount
stores which may adversely impact our sales and gross margin; (6)
the high degree of fourth quarter seasonality of our business and
the impact on our sales, profitability and liquidity; (7) the
extent and success of our merchandising, marketing and/or
promotional programs; (8) personnel costs, the extent to which we
are able to retain and attract key personnel and disruptions caused
by the loss of key personnel; (9) the availability, terms and cost
of consumer credit; (10) relationships with suppliers including the
timely delivery to us of appropriate merchandise on acceptable
payment terms; (11) our ability to maintain adequate information
systems, capacity and infrastructure; (12) our leverage and cost of
funds and changes in interest rates that may increase financing
costs; (13) our ability to maintain adequate loss prevention
measures; (14) fluctuations in raw material prices, including
diamond, gem and gold prices; (15) the impact of current or future
price reductions on margins and resultant valuation allowances
taken on certain merchandise inventory identified from time to time
as items which would not be part of our future merchandise
presentation as well as alternative methods of disposition of this
merchandise inventory and resulting valuations taken; (16)
developments relating to settlement of the consolidated Capital
Factors actions, the non-prosecution agreement entered into with
the United States Attorney's Office, the SEC investigation and
shareholder and other civil litigation, including the impact of
such developments on our results of operations and financial
condition and relationship with our lenders or with our vendors;
(17) regulation affecting the industry generally, including
regulation of marketing practices; and (18) the risk factors
identified from time to time in our filings with the SEC. For
Investor Relations info: investorrelations@whji.com Internet
Website: www.whitehalljewellers.com
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