STORES Magazine - August 2008 - (Page 48)

NOT SO HOT EARN IN G S G ROWT H Casual Male has the dubious distinction of topping both the Not-So-Hot Earnings Growth and the Not-So-Hot Profit Ratio charts. Part of the reason is that the big-and-tall menswear retailer has been transforming itself over the past couple of years, including opening the first Rochester stores since acquiring the brand in 2004 and also dropping “big and tall” from its name. The company added “XL” to the logo of its flagship brand, denoting “extra large.” This comes as plus-size menswear continues to grow from its current level of about $6 billion a year. Unfortunately for Casual Male, this growth in large-size clothing has also attracted the attention of mainstream retailers ranging from JCPenney to Macy’s to Walmart, all of which have added some larger menswear to the ends of their clothing racks. Being a single source for a broad selection of clothing and accessories provides a welldefined niche for Casual Male, but there is also the challenge of finding those customers and letting them know COMPANY 2007 EARNINGS 2006 EARNINGS CHANGE Casual Male Syms Haverty Furniture Genesco Foot Locker Dillard’s The Bon-Ton Stores 99 Cents Only Stores The Pantry Collective Brands All dollar figures in thousands $414 807 1,758 7,750 53,000 53,800 11,562 2,893 26,732 42,700 $42,632 9,548 16,000 67,646 251,000 245,600 46,883 9,762 89,198 122,000 -99.0% -91.5 -89.0 -88.5 -78.9 -78.1 -75.3 -70.4 -70.0 -65.0 about the stores. “We are catering to a small percentage of the adult male population and it is very hard to discriminate who is who by size,” says Casual Male CEO David Levin. “It’s always been an expensive proposition for us to prospect new customers.” Casual Male is responding to the challenge by making efforts to attract men at the smaller end of the tape measure — those with 42-inch to 46-inch waists — who currently account for only about 25 percent of total sales. “It’s a stigma issue,” says Levin, in explaining why men in that size range might prefer shopping at department stores or mass merchants rather than at Casual Male. Contributing to the precipitous decline in earnings last year were losses from discontinued operations (primarily stores that were closed) and increased promotional activity in the final quarter of the year. The company’s earnings per share dropped to a penny, in contrast to $1.21 per share the year before. Even while forecasting same-store sales to be flat or perhaps up as much as 2 percent this year, Casual Male says it is comfortable with analysts’ forecasts of earnings in the area of 28 cents a share. 35 H14 STORES / AUGUST 2008 time Limited divisions SIZZLING SEGMENT Tween Brands (the erst- Tweens & Teens 13.3% while Limited Too) and Zumiez 27.9 23.1 Abercrombie & Fitch. Urban Outfitters 17.3 As a group, specialty Aéropostale The Buckle 16.9 apparel retailers didn’t Tween Brands 14.7 fare as well as those foAbercrombie & Fitch 13.0 cused on the younger American Eagle Outfitters 9.3 set, but two members of Charlotte Russe 8.7 the group did earn sin- Wet Seal 8.3 gle-digit rankings on the big chart. American Apparel sports a 35.8 percent sales gain, good enough to place fifth among all Hot 100 chains, and No. 6 Coldwater Creek is right behind with a 33.8 percent increase. American Apparel has been opening stores with a vengeance, fueling its torrid sales gains, but the expansion WWW.STORES.ORG 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

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.