Musicland Stores Corp., which has stores in three Salt Lake Valley malls, has restructured its business, consolidating four divisions into two divisions, as it seeks new ways to ease the company's financial problems.
Under its new structure, Music-land will have a superstore division that oversees operations of Media Play and On Cue and a mall store division to operate its Sam Goody music chain and its Suncoast Motion Picture Co. chain of video-for-sale stores.Media Play superstores sell books, videos, music and computer software. Media Play has an outlet at 5600 S. Redwood Road. On Cue has a similar format but is scaled down for small-town markets.
The company, as of June 30, had 800 Sam Goody stores, 414 Sun-coast stores, 84 Media Play stores and 159 On Cue outlets.
Gary Ross, former president of the Suncoast division, will head the new superstore division. Keith Benson, former president of the music store division and one-time chief financial officer and vice chairman, will hold the new position of president of the mall store division.
Musicland last month hired turnaround specialist Gilbert Wachsman as vice chairman to integrate the company's merchandising, buying, inventory systems, distribution and advertising departments.
Paine Webber analyst Craig Bibb was not optimistic that the retailer's moves would help Musicland's finances.
"This is just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic," Bibb said. "Changing the responsibilities of people who are already there doesn't bring in the new merchandising skills they need."
Musicland lost $135.8 million on sales of $1.72 billion in 1995. The Minnetonka-based company also lost $40.5 million on revenues of $383.6 million in the first quarter of 1996 as it restructured to close underperforming stores.