Can You Still Order From Lands' End During the UPS Strike? Ask the Mother of the Bride

                  Lands' End Creatively Keeps Packages Moving 

DODGEVILLE, Wis., Aug. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- "URGENT! Send my shoes -- the wedding is Saturday!" "Please, I need this gift for my son's birthday." That's what Lands' End is hearing from its customers in the midst of a nationwide strike by the country's largest parcel carrier. In an effort to satisfy its customers' needs, the direct merchant organized a SWAT team to implement creative solutions to handling the strike. Among them: converting its warehouse into a mini-post office, delivering customers' packages to its twenty outlet stores in five states, and finding unique ways to special deliver products to customers with urgent needs. National ads which will appear starting Friday, August 8, announce the fact that Lands' End is still delivering to customers.

According to Mike Smith, the company's president and chief executive officer, "Our employees have done an outstanding job, creating new ways to ensure that our customers' experience with Lands' End is a positive one."

A SWAT team consisting of employees from functions across the company -- operations, customer relations, sales, service, finance, communications, retail, and shipping -- implemented contingency plans immediately, switching to Priority Mail via the United States Post Office. However, since the Post Office is swamped as it tries to accommodate the additional volume created by the strike, Lands' End stepped in to ensure the progress of its shipments. "We converted our distribution center into a mini-post office," stated Phil Schaecher, senior vice president of operations.

Inside the warehouse, changes in the shipping process are moving Lands' End packages deeper into the postal system so the customer can receive the package in a week and often sooner. Each day, the equipment, usually programmed to sort an average 40,000 packages into ten UPS hub locations, has been reprogrammed to sort them into an elaborate zip code break-down. Then, the shipping department staff organizes the sorted packages onto pallets by zip code. From there, they are loaded onto trucks hired by Lands' End. The trucks drive the customers' packages to major post office hubs in cities as far away as Denver and Philadelphia. As a result, the company expects the customer to receive the package within a week and often sooner. "This process is 15 times more complex than our usual UPS process and has required that we increase staff by 200 percent," stated Schaecher.

The sales force is working with customers who have urgent needs, reviewing each on a case-by-case basis to determine how best to get packages to these people. For example, a mother of the bride in Amherst, N.Y. was the first such case. She sought navy calfskin pumps in time for her daughter's special day. The sales representative decided to do whatever it took to help the mother look her best, and the package arrived successfully in two days.

Starting with Monday's orders, Lands' End will alert the customers who live near the direct merchant's outlet stores that they can choose to pick up their package personally at the store. The twenty stores are located in Iowa, Wisconsin (excluding Madison and Milwaukee which will receive a high-level of service from USPS), Minnesota, Illinois, and New York. During the strike, the company has issued a special offer of free shipping to customers who opt for this delivery method.

To reassure those who are wondering when their package will arrive, Lands' End is posting average delivery times on its Internet site (http://www.landsend.com) starting next Tuesday.

Lands' End announces a new ad plan starting Friday, August 8. The national campaign targets millions of consumers and communicates that during the strike, Lands' End is still shipping via Priority Mail. The ads will appear Friday, August 8, in print publications and might expand if the strike continues.

With all resources focusing on serving the customer, Lands' End expects more notes like this e-mail from a customer in Florida, "I needed a set of suit pants to match a suit I had purchased through the Beyond Buttondowns catalog. I was under time pressure to have them delivered. I would like to express my sincere thanks to everyone in your organization. The pants arrived yesterday, and my wife and I can now enjoy her 30th high school reunion, knowing I will be 'suitably attired.'"

Lands' End is an international direct merchant of traditionally styled, casual clothing for men, women, and children, accessories, domestics, shoes, and soft luggage. The company's products are offered through regular mailings of its monthly primary catalog and its specialty catalogs. Lands' End is known for providing products of exceptional quality at prices representing honest value, enhanced by a commitment to excellence in customer service.

SOURCE Lands' End

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/CONTACT: Anna Schryver of Lands' End, 608-935-6319/

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CC-MR -- MNTH012 -- 4515 08/07/97 13:57 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com