22 July 1999: US-based Sunglass Hut International Inc., buoyed by increased sales, said it planned to open 75 new stores selling sunglasses and watches in North America and Australia.
“We continue to…
22 July 1999: US-based Sunglass Hut International Inc., buoyed by increased sales, said it planned to open 75 new stores selling sunglasses and watches in North America and Australia. “We continue to be very pleased with our combination Sunglass and Watch stores, which have been quite strong since we first began testing this concept last fall,” said president and chief executive officer John Watson. He said the company“s board had approved the further expansion of this concept. In addition to about 60 locations previously targeted to be opened or converted in North America this year, the company intends to open or convert up to an additional 50 locations in North America and up to 25 locations in Australia. “This would leave us with almost 200 worldwide combo locations in operation as of year-end, representing a solid base to further expand over the next several years,” Watson said. Sunglass Hut, which also runs Watch Station stores, reported that sales for the five weeks ended 3 July were US$ 80.2 million, an increase of 2.9% compared with US$ 78 million for the same period last year. Same-store sales for the five-week period, that is sales in stores open for at least a year, increased 5.7%. Sales for the 22 weeks ended 3 July increased 3.3% to US$ 291.5 million compared with US$ 282.3 million for the comparable period in 1998. Same-store sales for the year to date increased 5.8%. Sunglass Hut International operates 1,794 sunglass speciality locations, 109 Watch Station stores and 80 combination sunglass and watch stores.