New Exemplar Luxury Group Plans Life After Saks Bankruptcy

Saks Global has emerged from Chapter 11 and has rebranded under a new name — the Exemplar Luxury Group.

The company said late Friday afternoon that, as expected, it completed its restructuring process, putting it under new ownership with “a substantially strengthened balance sheet, including a nearly 75 percent debt reduction, sufficient liquidity and the full backing of its capital partners and other key stakeholders.” Saks Global declared bankruptcy in January 2026, a result of its inability to pay vendors and sustain ample levels of inventory, and huge debt, all stemming from the $2.7 billion acquisition of the Neiman Marcus Group, in a deal led by Richard Baker.

“It’s a really big day for the Exemplar Luxury Group. We are starting as a new company, and that’s why we have this new branding, because we really believe that we are the luxury collective that unites the most coveted luxury brands with unrivaled luxury experiences,” chief executive officer Geoffroy van Raemdonck told WWD on Friday. “We chose the name because we want to set a standard of excellence, and we want to make a promise to the industry that we are going to be the best partner, the best destination for customers, and an employer of choice.

“There’s a lot of excitement from everyone because we no longer operate in bankruptcy, no longer with court supervision, and we have all the financial strength that allows us to dream, and most importantly, execute what our plan is, and realize the full potential of Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman.”

Part of the dream is to “reimagine the luxury experience in the years to come,” van Raemonck said. “We will be able to do that because we have financial strength. We have 75 percent less debt. We have ample liquidity to fund the business, and we have a cost structure that has realized a lot of the synergies from the integration” of Saks and Neiman’s into centralized functions in several areas.

Until recently, many designer and upscale brands have been distrustful of Saks Global and its pre-bankruptcy regime, which stiffed certain vendors or delayed payments. Saks Global implemented a highly unorthodox and unfair 90-day payment policy.

“My goal is to be a key and better partner, one that is transparent, one that is reliable,” van Raemdonck said.

He said Exemplar will be purchasing annually more than $3 billion of goods at cost, combined for Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman. But there won’t be any buying for Saks Off Fifth, which will continue to operate with its remaining 12 stores purely as a liquidation channel, after closing 57 units.

Asked what the policy on paying vendors is now, van Raemdonck replied: “We’re going to continue to pay the brands on the terms we’ve agreed to with each of them. The payment terms are different brand by brand, but every brand has an agreed payment term, and we are paying them on time and we’re going to continue to operate that way.” He declined to get into any specific payment terms.

Asked if inventory levels are where they should be, van Raemdonck said, “When we look at the inventory in terms of the newness that we’ve received, the inventory receipts have been according to our plan. When we look at the total inventory, we still need to continue to build but that’s really because we didn’t have that many receipts until February-March. But when I look at the seasonal receipts, we are receiving exactly what we needed, and we have received more than what we received the prior year. So I feel good about our inventory.”

Regarding the big picture, Van Raemdonck emphasized that a priority will be to more sharply differentiate the Saks, Neiman’s and Bergdorf’s businesses.

With the company’s emergence from bankruptcy, a new board of directors has been formed. Pentwater Capital Management and Bracebridge Capital, the investment firms that have partnered with the company throughout the restructuring process, will each have two representatives on the seven-person board.

In addition, van Raemdonck was named to the board, along with two independent directors. They are Dave Kimbell and Philippe Schaus. Kimbell previously served as CEO of Ulta Beauty. He has also held leadership positions at PepsiCo and the Procter & Gamble Co., and currently serves on the board of Best Buy Inc.

Schaus most recently served as president and global CEO of Moët Hennessy after his role as the global chairman and CEO of DFS Group, while being a member of the executive committee of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton for more than 12 years.

Regarding restructuring the business, “We took advantage of the tools and the flexibility that are available during a Chapter 11,” van Raemdonck said. “We took a lot of actions,” including right-sizing the corporate organization, consolidating some functions together, and “optimizing our store footprint.” That included extensively shutting down much of the operations on Saks Off 5th to be a liquidation channel, closing several Saks Fifth Avenue stores and a few Neiman Marcus locations.

“The vast majority of those activities have taken place,” van Raemdonck said. “And that’s why it’s such a brand new day…We’re going to constantly reassess our footprint organization and fine tune it like you would in any company, but from an integration standpoint, a big part of the cost synergies have been realized, which is what’s so exciting for the future, because we now operate with a much smaller cost base compared to the sum of the two entities before the merger or even before the petition.”

Saks Fifth Avenue is down to 15 stores after closing 18. “The vast majority of the 15 are large stores and they’re all in markets where there’s strong luxury demand,” the CEO said. Neiman’s currently operates 33 stores, and there are two Bergdorf Goodman stores – the women’s and men’s flagships.

“We’re going to constantly reassess our footprint and organization and fine tune like you would in any company. But from an integration standpoint, a big part of the cost synergies have been realized, which is what’s so exciting for the future, because we now operate with a much smaller cost base compared to the sum of the two entities before the merger or even before the petition.

“We took advantage of the tools and the flexibility that is available during a Chapter 11 to take a lot of action. We right-sized our corporate organization, reorganized some functions together,” including creating a central merchandising team for Saks and Neiman’s. “We then optimized our store footprint, winding down some of the operations on Saks Off 5th to really be a liquidation channel. The vast majority of those activities have taken place, and that’s why it’s such a brand new day.

“Our goal is to be a double-digit EBITDA company, and I think that’s achievable given the unique assets we have as the gateway to the U.S. customer,” van Raemdonck added. “I have a track record of saying things that I deliver on, and so we’re going to be maniacally focused on execution and financial discipline.”

He said the Exemplar name was devised internally. “We asked our team what would be the best name for the parent company. Obviously, each of the banners stays with their same names, but we wanted to unite them.”

Asked if dropping the Saks Global name reflected an effort to dissociate somewhat from Saks since over the last few years had issues while Neiman’s was performing much better, and Saks is now a much smaller piece of the pie, van Raemdonck replied, “No. It’s really about having a name that unites all three banners and is not anchored to one of them. It’s really about the spirit of these three banners together but it doesn’t change anything for our customers shopping the banners.”

For the year ahead, van Raemdonck said, “I’m optimistic because when the brands deliver newness that is really congruent to their brand image and they tell strong brand stories, we see outperformance. We’ve had some brand launches, events, activations, and trunk shows that set records with us. We’re seeing more and more brands making changes in their creative directors and finetuning their brand positioning to be closer to their core, and we’re seeing a lot of those being very successful. That tells me the customer has an appetite for luxury, and that many brands are gaining great momentum.”

Now that Saks, Neiman’s and Bergdorf’s are all under one corporate umbrella, “From a cost structure there are great synergies, but most importantly, when I think about investing in the future, investing in technology and talent, these investments are now made across three banners, and that’s much more efficient. I believe that these three banners living together under the Exemplar Luxury Group was the right strategy, and now it’s set up right with the right capital structure, the right cost structure, and ample liquidity.”