Jeweler Zale to lock up 35 Bailey Banks & Biddle stores
02 Sep '05
2 min read
Single store selling jewelry giant Zale Corp will close about 35 of its 110 Bailey Banks & Biddle stores next year in an effort to refocus the brand in more-upscale areas, said company executives yesterday during an earnings call.
The stores, which will close following the 2005 holiday season, “do not fit with our Bailey Banks & Biddle strategy,” said President and CEO Mary Forte. Zale wants to shrink its Bailey Banks & Biddle store base while boosting investment and square footage at key locations, she stated.
Besides the Bailey stores, Dallas-based Zale currently operates 750 Zales, 105 Zale Outlet stores, 160 Mappins units and 965 Piercing Pagoda kiosks, all in the U.S. It also operates 170 Peoples stores in Canada.
For the 2005 fiscal year ended July 31, same-store sales rose 2.3 percent in the company's Bailey Banks & Biddle division. They were up 11.8 percent in the Peoples division, meanwhile, but down 2.5 percent in the Zales division.
Zale said it anticipates same-store sales growth of about 3 percent for fiscal 2006 and cited plans to open 65 stores and 40 kiosks. Separately, the company has launched a $100 million stock buyback program.
The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), founded in 1957, is the global trade association of the shopping center industry. Its 54,000 members in the US, Canada and more than 80 other countries include shopping center owners, developers, managers, marketing specialists, investors, lenders, retailers and other professionals as well as academics and public officials. As the global industry trade association, ICSC links with more than 25 national and regional shopping center councils throughout the world.
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