Coldwater Creek Completes Reorganization of Product and Merchandising Areas

SANDPOINT, Idaho, Jan. 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Coldwater Creek Inc. (Nasdaq: CWTR) today announced that Jill Brown Dean has been appointed President and Chief Merchandising Officer.  Ms. Dean will join Coldwater Creek on February 14, 2011 and succeed Georgia Shonk Simmons who previously announced her intention to retire.  The Company also announced that Jerome Jessup, currently Executive Vice President, Creative Director, has been promoted to President and Chief Creative Officer.  Both Ms. Dean and Mr. Jessup will report directly to Dennis Pence, co-founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Coldwater Creek.

Ms. Dean joins Coldwater Creek with over 25 years of retail and merchandising experience in the specialty retail sector. She has held numerous leadership roles throughout her career, most recently as President of the Limited Too division of Tween Brands. Prior to that, Ms. Dean spent 18 years with Limited Brands serving as Executive Vice President, General Manager for Victoria's Secret flagship stores as well as President and Chief Executive Officer of Lane Bryant. Ms. Dean began her career at Limited Brands in merchandising for the Express division.

Jill Brown Dean said, "I am excited to join Coldwater Creek, as I believe the Company has a strong heritage, a terrific team, and significant growth potential.  I look forward to working with the Coldwater Creek team to provide our customers with relevant and appealing offerings that build upon our heritage and position the Company to drive consistent sales growth and improved performance."

"We are extremely pleased to welcome Jill to the Coldwater Creek team. Jill joins Coldwater Creek at a pivotal point in the Company's history.  She is a seasoned merchant with extensive retail experience and a proven track record of success in building and repositioning consumer brands," said Dennis Pence. "We are also pleased to announce Jerome's promotion to President and Chief Creative Officer. Since joining Coldwater Creek, he has updated and elevated the brand through our new creative initiatives, and we believe that the changes he is making to the design and development of our product are moving the Company in the right direction."

Mr. Pence continued, "On behalf of the Board and the Company, we thank Georgia for her many contributions to this organization over the past 12 years. She was instrumental in building the Coldwater Creek brand and in growing the business to over $1 billion in revenue. We will miss her immensely and wish her well in her retirement."

"With these changes to our leadership team, we have now completed the reorganization of the Merchandising and Design areas of Coldwater Creek. I am confident in our new team and look forward to seeing the results of the changes we have made in the months to come," Mr. Pence concluded.

About Coldwater Creek

Coldwater Creek is a leading specialty retailer of women's apparel, gifts, jewelry, and accessories that was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Sandpoint, Idaho. The company sells its merchandise through premium retail stores across the country, online at coldwatercreek.com and through its catalogs.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION:  

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the securities laws, including statements relating to our future performance. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to a number of uncertainties, risks and assumptions that may not fully materialize or may prove incorrect.  As a result, our actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from estimates or projections contained in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to:  

• the inherent difficulty in forecasting consumer buying and retail traffic patterns and trends, which continue to be erratic and are affected by factors beyond our control, such as the current macroeconomic conditions, high unemployment, continuing heavy promotional activity in the specialty retail marketplace, and competitive conditions and the possibility that because of lower than expected customer response, or because of competitive pricing pressures, we may be required to sell merchandise at lower than expected margins, or at a loss;  
• the retention of key personnel;
• our new design aesthetic may take longer to implement than expected or may not resonate with our core and target customer demographic;
• difficulties in forecasting consumer demand as a result of changing fashion trends and consumer preferences;
• the possibility that our sales and earnings expectations will not be realized, due to changing business and economic conditions;
• our potential inability to recover the substantial fixed costs of our retail store base due to sluggish sales;
• our potential inability to continue to fund our operations solely with operating cash as a result of either lower sales or higher than anticipated costs, or both;
• delays we may encounter in sourcing merchandise from our foreign and domestic vendors, including the potential inability of our vendors to finance production of the goods we order or meet our production needs due to raw material or labor shortages; risks related to our foreign sourcing strategy; and the possibility that foreign sourcing may not lead to any reduction of our sourcing costs or improvement in our margins;
• increasing competition from discount retailers and companies that have introduced concepts or products similar to ours;
• difficulties encountered in anticipating and managing customer returns and the possibility that customer returns will be greater than expected;
• the inherent difficulties in catalog management, for which we incur substantial costs prior to mailing that we may not be able to recover, and the possibility of unanticipated increases in mailing and printing costs;
• unexpected costs or problems associated with our efforts to manage our expanding and increasingly complex business, including our current efforts to improve key management information systems and controls;
• the risk that the benefits expected from our strategic initiatives will not be achieved or may take longer to achieve than we expect;

and such other factors as are discussed in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which are based on current expectations and speak only as of the date of this release. We do not assume any obligation to publicly release any revisions to forward-looking statements to reflect events or changes in our expectations after the date of this release.

SOURCE Coldwater Creek Inc.