Action sport retailer West 49 Q1 earnings gain 15.5%
08 Jun '07
4 min read
As part of the Company's continued strategy to grow its banners across Canada, during the quarter, the Company opened two Off The Wall stores, a D-Tox store and an Amnesia store.The new Amnesia store also includes a D-Tox department. As a result, the Company closed its D-Tox store located in the same mall to eliminate redundancy.
In keeping with the Company's strategy to maximize returns from existing stores, the Company relocated and expanded two West 49 stores and an Amnesia store during the quarter.At the end of the quarter the Company was operating 128 stores under seven banners and an online retailer,compared to 112 stores under six banners and an online retailer the year before.
Subsequent to quarter end, the Company opened a new Duke's Northshore store to continue to test the retail concept focused on men's active lifestyle apparel. Also subsequent to quarter end, the Company expanded a West 49store and closed an Amnesia store, which acted as a temporary clearance centre, on account that a larger Amnesia store exists in the same mall.
"With one of our weaker periods of the year behind us, we continue to position ourselves well for the back half of the year, which has historically been marked by disproportionately higher sales and all of our earnings," added Mr. Baio.
We remain confident in our ability to meet our primary objectives for fiscal 2008. Having already opened five new stores, we are well on our way to meeting our target of opening ten to twelve new stores for the year. In addition to the four relocations and expansions completed so far this year, we have plans for relocating and expanding four to six others during fiscal 2008.
Combined, the achievement of these two targets is expected to result in a ten to twelve percent increase in our total retail square footage. On another note, we continue to work towards completing the accelerated roll-out of our shared services initiative, which is designed to improve profitability, better position the Company for future growth, and enhance our controls. As stated previously, we expect this significant undertaking to be completed during the third quarter of this year."
marketing@alchempro.com
