Maybe quality will improve, but more likely, Lands' End is simply stuck in the Wall Street washing machine and is just moving on to another cycle where it will be spun off for now, then, maybe bought by Private Equity investors or another company or the management will "take it private" for a few years to clean up its balance sheet and then spin it back out as a Public Offering. To wit, from the Wall Street Journal:
"Nearly half its shares will be controlled by billionaire hedge fund manager Edward Lampert, who controls a similar stake in Sears and serves as its chairman and chief executive."
It won't return to the days where the original founding family owned it and ran it, yes, for profit, but also with a sense of pride and tradition, a respect for maintaining the esteem of its clients, and a culture that imbued the entire organization with pride to be part of the Lands' End family (something one felt when they called to place an order with the company years and years ago).
Maybe things will get better or worse as a stand alone public company, but the Lands' End many of us knew for years is gone and its next incarnation will be driven by the competence or incompetence of investors / shareholders looking - my guess - to sell it again in a few years. Lands' End is just bouncing around the Wall Street washing machine.
