Quotes from some of our Retail supporters.
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On Retail
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A letter of support dated July 17, 2009 to the Honorable Timothy Geithner, Treasury Secretary, signed by 32 industry trade organizations. Read Full Letter
"A CIT bankruptcy could have a ‘crippling impact’ on manufacturers. There is no level in the supply chain that CIT Group does not touch, from the suppliers of thread and material to the manufacturer, to the retail shelf.” "This is a potential crisis for Main Street." "The industry is already battling less inventory and battling a recession. If you can't get the product, how do you get consumers into the store?"
--Kevin Burke, chief executive officer of the American Apparel & Footwear Association"If the criterion for whether a financial institution should receive government assistance is whether it is ‘too large to fail,’ CIT is most certainly too important to the retail industry to be allowed to fail, and the retail industry is too important to the economy to be placed under additional stress.” She added: “A failure of CIT would impact on thousands of retailers and, consequently, the consumer spending that makes up two-thirds of our nation’s economy. That cannot be allowed to happen at a time when retailers are already struggling to survive the national recession.”
--Tracy Mullin, National Retail Federation President and CEOThe National Retail Federation (NRF) said bankruptcy of the major lender could have severe consequences on the retail industry and the nation's economy. "A failure of CIT would impact thousands of retailers and, consequently, the consumer spending that makes up two-thirds of our nation's economy." "That cannot be allowed to happen at a time when retailers are already struggling to survive the national recession”.
--Tracy Mullin, National Retail Federation President and CEO
“In this terrible economic climate, our member companies tell us that the loss of factoring and loan instruments from CIT could put many textile companies and their suppliers out of business. Textile mills, like much of the manufacturing base, have seen orders decline by 20 percent or more during the last six months. Many manufacturers are running on survival mode right now – a major disruption in financing and factoring would be enough to put many of them under, particularly since there is no substitute for an institution which offers the size and breadth of services to small business that CIT does.”
-- Cass Johnson, National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) President"CIT is like an octopus with its tentacles that reach out to so many industries and sub-industries."
--Coalition, which included the National Retail Federation, the National Cotton Council, and the Southern Textile Association"CIT is one of the very few large, sophisticated factors out there for retail suppliers," “If you remove CIT, then an awful lot of suppliers do not have access to the operating cash they need to supply the next round of goods to retailers."
--Mallory Duncan, general counsel for the National Retail Federation"The industry just won't be able to absorb the amount of volume."
-- Michael Cipriani, executive vice president of Rosenthal & Rosenthal Inc., a competitor of CIT"We could see significant inventory issues for the [Christmas] holidays."
-- David Strasser, an analyst at Philadelphia-based Janney Montgomery Scott
