STORES Magazine - August 2008 - (Page 44)

HOTTEST UNIT GROWTH IHOP, Rite Aid and Coldwater Creek rank among the top 10 companies with the greatest year-to-year changes in store count. They also rank among the top 10 on the Hot 100 Retailers chart, which isn’t too surprising, since adding a lot of stores and increasing sales often go handin-hand. Usually the jump is accomplished by acquiring an industry rival, such as IHOP and Rite Aid did. Coldwater Creek built on its catalog and Internet base by moving into high gear with its bricks-and-mortar expansion. IHOP’s big move came last summer when it spent approximately $2.1 billion to buy Applebee’s International. IHOP was an experienced franchisor of pancake restaurants (IHOP was once known as International House of Pancakes) while, with some 3,250 locations, Applebee’s COMPANY 2007 UNITS 2006 UNITS CHANGE 3 was the nation’s largest chain of sit-down restaurants. Applebee’s had lost some of its glow and was being pursued by private equity funds when it put itself up for sale and was amenable to IHOP’s advances. Rite Aid, of course, completed its deal for the Brooks Pharmacy and Eckerd drug stores that were once owned by Canada-based Jean Coutu Group. Coldwater Creek opened a net of 67 stores, including 12 in the final quarter, driving a lot of volume, but paid the price in terms of margin and earnings. The company is making a number of changes in order to improve its performance. “We are moderating our retail expansion” this year, says president and CEO Daniel Griesmer. New store openings have been scaled back to about 50. Among the new locations was the first Coldwater Creek in Manhattan after the company entered the market with 13 stores in Long Island, Staten Island and nearby New Jersey and Connecticut suburbs. IHOP Men’s Wearhouse Susser Holdings Rite Aid Cabela’s Whole Foods Markets Darden Restaurants Coldwater Creek Lumber Liquidators Cheesecake Factory 3,320 1,273 505 5,029 27 269 1,702 306 116 155 1,302 752 325 3,330 18 188 1,324 239 91 123 155.0% 69.3 55.4 51.0 50.0 43.1 28.5 28.0 27.5 26.0 SIZZLING SEGMENT Drug Stores CVS Caremark Rite Aid Walgreen drugstore.com 42.0% from local farms. Chipotle has nearly 750 restaurants 74.2 across the country, is opening its first Cana39.8 dian units this year and is casting an eye to13.4 ward Europe, where Frankfurt, London 7.2 and Paris have been mentioned as possible expansion sites. Supermarket segment he supermarket segment has five representatives in the Hot 100, but none are in the Average three-year revenue growth of top quartile. As a group, they posted a the 40 retailers that 17.2 percent year-to-year revenue rise, led by have appeared in A&P’s 19.2 percent boost following its acquisi89 Hot 100 since tion of Pathmark Stores. The differential was eninception in 2006 one trained at the Culinary Institute of hanced by A&P’s downsizing in the several quarAmerica. Ells was one of the early proponents of pushing ters preceding the combination of the two New Jerseysuppliers to use natural and humane methods of raising based chains. farm animals. More recently, the company has begun a Rising food prices have helped all grocers’ top lines, and program of buying at least 25 percent of its produce — roSUPERVALU benefited from this, as well as from the inmaine lettuce, green bell peppers, jalapenos, red onions — clusion of its distribution business in total revenues for the 45.1% T H10 STORES / AUGUST 2008 WWW.STORES.ORG http://drugstore.com http://WWW.STORES.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of STORES Magazine - August 2008

STORES Magazine - August 2008 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page The Lure of Free Shipping Walmart’s New Look What Shoppers Think Will Widgets Work for Wheat Bread and Wasabi? 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Store Design Industry Economics Hot 100 Retailers Concept2Watch Mobile Technology Small Store Technology Website Optimization Site Selection Mobile Payments Recycling Merchandising: Cool Sells Merchandising: Merchandising in Mexico Store Construction & Development Human Resources Loyalty Programs Mobile Marketing Loeb Retail Letter Arts Update Point of View NRF News Retail Crossword Retail Industry Calendar Last Laugh

STORES Magazine - August 2008

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