Macy's Hires Target Veteran to Spearhead Private Label Initiatives

Macy’s, Inc. on Monday announced it has hired Emily Erusha-Hilleque, a private label veteran from Target, as senior vice president for Macy’s private brands. In this role, Erusha-Hilleque will lead the company's private brands design organization, including apparel and home design teams, as well as drive the private brands strategy in partnership with Macy’s merchandising and sourcing teams. She will report to Nata Dvir, chief merchandising officer of Macy’s.

"Emily brings leadership and expertise in creating industry-disrupting brands and driving successful product design and merchandising strategies," Dvir said in a statement on Monday. "She has her finger on the pulse of the consumer and on trends. She will ensure that our private brands reflect our customers' wants and needs across categories."

Prior to this position, Erusha-Hilleque served as the design director of ready-to-wear, young contemporary private label, and design partnerships at Target. In that role she was responsible for building, launching and growing the first Gen Z and culture-focused private label, Wild Fable, and designer collaborations including Levi’s, Alexis, Rixo, Sandy Liang, Rachel Comey, and LEGO, according to Macy's statement.

Total Retail's Take: By hiring a Target private label veteran, Macy's is clearly showing that it's becoming very serious about growing its in-house brands. After all, Target is a well-known private-label leader, with 50 private-label brands brands right now, 10 of which are worth $1 billion. Target is also known as a retailer that puts a lot of weight into collaborating with top designers, and has been doing so since the late 1990s.

Indeed, Dvir noted that a private label revamp remains key to the department store's turnaround strategy. “Establishing our private brand portfolio as our differentiator is a key tenet of the Win with Fashion and Style pillar of our Polaris strategy," she said. Furthermore, Macy's has reportedly mapped out a goal for private label brands to account for 25 percent of its sales by 2025. It started moving toward that goal by launching a new private-label brand last summer called "And Now This" for the fashion-forward contemporary shopper. Rest assured, more private-label brands will be launched going forward with Erusha-Hilleque at the helm.