Neiman Marcus is flying blind.
The struggling luxury retailer, which has recently admitted to having a tough time coaxing its loyal customers into its stores, is running into trouble with its vendors, The Post has learned.
Some vendors have become irked and have lost confidence in the chain since the stores’ new computer merchandising system failed last summer.
The snafu with the system has left Neiman — and its Bergdorf Goodman operation — unable to verify inventory, it has said.
Operating blind, Neiman has been putting pressure on its suppliers to determine when it should restock its stores and discount its merchandise, vendors complained in interviews with The Post.
Neiman, when caught by surprise with excess inventory, has asked some vendors to buy back some of their unsold goods — without the benefit of a system that gives the vendors accurate information, they said.
“The information they send us is inaccurate and the onus is on us to prove how much of our product they sold,” said one agitated vendor who did not want to be identified. “We lost sales in December because Neiman didn’t know it had sold out of our product.”
A second vendor, who also spoke on the condition on anonymity, said it has not received a sales report from Neiman in about five months.
Neiman traces its inventory and merchandising problems to last August, when it moved to upgrade its 40-year-old system.
Instead, the upgrade has cost Neiman up to $35 million in lost sales, the company said last month during an earnings call, and management said the snafus would continue for the foreseeable future.
“I know many of our clients are trying to get the data they got in the past [from Neiman] and its been much more difficult,” said Gary Wassner, chief executive of Hilldun Corp., a lender to the fashion industry. “They don’t know how well their products are doing.”
Neiman can hardly afford to miss a single sale, as its financial performance worsens by the month. It’s turned in five consecutive quarters of declining sales.
“They have lost total visibility of their business,” said Steven Dennis, a retail consultant and former Neiman’s executive.
The timing of the merchandising system blowup couldn’t be worse for Karen Katz, Neiman’s longtime chief executive, who was already wrestling with owners upset at the chain’s subpar performance.
The owners, Ares Management and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, have retained an executive search firm to replace Neiman’s C-suite, including, possibly, Katz, sources said.
Ares and CPP declined to comment, but according to a source with knowledge of the situation, CPP has written down its $750 million investment in Neiman to zero and has a “team working on reorganizing” Neiman’s $4.9 billion in debt.
CPP declined to comment on the writedown.
Ares and CPP bought Neiman in 2013 for $6 billion and split ownership equally.
Last week, Neiman withdrew its 15-month-old public offering.
A spokeswoman for Neiman declined to comment.