• by Sarah Mahoney , Yesterday

Saks Global is replacing CEO Marc Metrick as it nears a potential bankruptcy filing, underscoring mounting pressure on the luxury retailer as it struggles to stabilize its finances. Saks announced that Richard Baker, the company’s executive chairman, will step into the CEO role.

The leadership change comes as Saks Global explores multiple paths to survival. Bloomberg reports that after missing a $100 million interest payment last week, the company is seeking a $1 billion loan and preparing for a possible bankruptcy filing within weeks.

The retailer has also begun selling off valuable real estate. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Saks is selling the land beneath the Neiman Marcus store on Stockton Street in San Francisco’s Union Square, though not the store itself. Earlier this year, it also sold the land occupied by Neiman Marcus’ Beverly Hills store. And it said to be exploring the sale of a minority stack in Bergdorf Goodman.

Metrick spent roughly three decades at Saks, building Saks.com into a major luxury ecommerce platform before spearheading the company’s most ambitious—and risky—move: The debt-heavy deal that brought together Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus under the Saks Global umbrella. The strategy aimed to unlock omnichannel efficiencies and scale in a consolidating luxury market, but the combined company has since been squeezed by rising debt costs and weakening demand.

Those pressures have spilled over to vendor relationships as well. According to published reports, Saks has missed payments to some suppliers, making parts of the luxury ecosystem increasingly wary of doing business with the retailer.

Saks’ own consumer research points to a more restrained luxury shopper. In a survey released last month, fewer respondents said they planned to buy or receive holiday gifts compared with last year, while overall spending intent and economic optimism declined amid political uncertainty, global conflict, and rising tariff concerns. Even higher-income consumers said they expect to pull back—buying fewer items rather than broadly splurging—complicating recovery prospects for a retailer already under financial strain.