JCPenney gearing up for home department reset

New York - Michael Graves has already developed 190 skus and Martha Stewart has knocked out around 3,000 for the new JCPenney shop-in-shops that will launch in the redesigned home department next spring.

"One area we're very excited about is home," ceo Ron Johnson said this morning at the Piper Jaffray Consumer Conference here. "We have an unlimited choice of product from a brand perspective."

Along with Stewart and Graves, other brands that have been announced so far for the home include Jonathan Adler, Sir Terrance Conran and Bodum as well as Royal Velvet, which is already in stores as a brand exclusive to JCP.

The brands will be offered "in an all-new presentation that's really going to be loved by customers," said Johnson.

JCPenney will begin rolling out its first shop-in-shops this fall, mainly in apparel. Widely known brands like Levi and Martha Stewart will likely go into to all 1,100 stores, while more niche brands such as Michael Graves may only land in the company's 700 metro area stores, he said.