.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} Gayle Smith is a numbers person, a female and an outsider. These three perspectives are exactly what Midwest Clothiers LLC needed to put some of its ideas into gear.

Smith’s first task after joining the retail company as CEO in late January was to help decide whether to merge Reichardt’s Clothing in the Roosevelt shopping district with Badowers on Ingersoll Avenue. With Reichardt’s lease ending and Ingersoll undergoing streetscape improvements, the company decided to consolidate both stores into Badowers Reichardt’s on Ingersoll. Smith provided the numbers to back up the decision, showing that the company would save money on operations without losing brands. “It really was a duplication of expense with not a lot of alternatives to our customers,” Smith said, “They have just as many alternatives, but we’re able to offer even more because the cost to do that is less. … We went back and forth about five times before we decided it was the right decision.”

Replacing Dave Lemons, who went into a career in commercial real estate, Smith has brought new ideas and a business sense that could recharge the local high-end clothing chain.

“We have to stay enthused and excited about the opportunity to change and she brings that to the company,” said Tim Sitzmann, co-owner of Midwest Clothiers, which also runs Mr. B on 86th Street, Sarto in West Glen Town Center and The Back Room on Beaver Avenue.

One of Smith’s main goals is to look at data and provide a basis for day-to-day operating decisions, including how much of one size to carry and how fast items should sell so that new clothes can be added to encourage customers to return several times each season.

“It’s really something that they haven’t looked at – the profitability by location, by product and by vendor – in the past,” she said, “and for a store this size, you absolutely have to know your numbers. You just cannot carry something that’s not profitable because you don’t have the luxury of making it up in another way. The stores are just too small compared to the big chains.”

Smith joins Midwest Clothiers at a time when traditional business attire is giving way to more casual dress. Though Smith continues to see the company’s strength in its sport coat and suit lines and brand names, she wants to take a new approach to bringing customers in the door. This includes touting the stores’ variety of options and strong customer service, with sales attendants who can show people new ways to use business attire, such as pairing a sport coat with jeans. She also would like to draw more attention to the women’s line. Although the department has done well, she said it has often been more of an afterthought for a company focused on men’s lines.

Smith plans to ramp up marketing efforts with a new campaign this year and to update the company’s Web site and add testimonials. As part of this, she encouraged employees to think of a movie star who would best fit each of Midwest Clothiers’ stores. Though Brad Pitt was an immediate choice for Sarto, the verdict is still out on the rest. However, she is using this kind of thinking to give employees a way to talk about their products.

Smith also has been involved with updating two of the company’s stores. When Reichardt’s held its closing sale, Midwest Clothiers shut down its discount store, The Back Room, and remodeled both the inside and outside to brighten it up. It also added lower-priced lines to the out-of-season clothes from its other stores that sell at half price. The store reopened on June 19.

“It’s a perfect starter place for people who are getting into the business world to get some basic wardrobe,” Smith said. “And hopefully they’re a customer with Midwest Clothiers and as they age and their income expands, they can afford some of our other stores.”

Badowers is undergoing renovations as well to match the streetscape improvements going on outside. Besides decorating improvements with lighter colors and new lighting, the company is adding glass windows and doors to the back of the building, where people park, to make it more inviting and will open up the front of the store with larger ceiling-to-floor windows.

With these changes, Smith and Sitzmann expect to strengthen Midwest Clothiers’ core brands in the face of competition from the Internet, Jordan Creek Town Center and larger clothing retailers. Though sales have been flat, they see the opportunity to change that trend and expand in the future.

“We see some opportunity for growth,” Sitzmann said. “Our Sarto store continues to grow. It’s not been open quite three years and to see it be in the black in that short of time is exciting. Those are some of the foundations we’re looking to build on.”

Smith said management debated about opening a new store in Ankeny, but decided to hold off to work on changes to its core business first.

Unlike the rest of Midwest Clothiers’ management, Smith’s background is in finance, not retailing. She is a certified public accountant and has a master of business administration degree.

After working for RSM McGladrey Inc. and Hawkeye State Bank in Des Moines for several years, she moved to Southern California, where she worked in a variety of business management and finance jobs, including managing a wholesale nursery, roofing business and automobile loan insurance company.

Seventeen years later, when her mother passed away and she wanted to be more involved in the care of her sister, who has special needs, the Sioux City native returned to Des Moines last summer.

Though this background does not include any retail experience, Smith points to a seminar she recently attended, where the speaker said that retailing is 90 percent numbers, 5 percent fashion and 5 percent luck.

Being in a small business, Smith sees herself wearing a lot of hats, including chief financial officer, chief operating officer and even salesperson during the Reichardt’s close-out sale.

“She’s just what our company needed for a springboard to the future,” Sitzmann said. “It’s a work in progress. We’re still in the middle of it, but at least we’re seeing some wonderful things that can happen with the effort that she’s put forward.”