Yeti plans to open its second and third stores in Chicago and Charleston, according to a regulatory filing.
The maker of high-end coolers Yeti has only one store, an 8,237 square foot flagship flagship opened last year in its hometown of Austin last year.
In the filing, Yeti said that in August 2018, it entered into two lease agreements. One is for a first floor and basement of a building in Chicago with an exterior footprint of approximately 5,538 square feet. The term of the lease is 120 months, and the monthly payments over the lease term are approximately $45,000. The spot is the former home of the Double Door music venue in Wicker Park.
Yeti also said it signed a second lease agreement is for a building in Charleston, SC, totaling approximately 5,039 square feet. The term of the lease is 120 months, and the monthly payments over the lease term are approximately $28,000.
The space just south of Calhoun Street formerly housed University Books of Charleston, which closed in late 2015.
In its prospectus, Yeti said DTC (direct-to-consumer) represents its fastest growing sales channel, with net sales increasing from $14.1 million in 2013 to $194.4 million in 2017, although largely through online channels.
Yeti wrote, “Our DTC channel provides customers and businesses ready access to our brand, branded content, and full product assortment. We intend to continue to drive direct sales to our varied customers through: YETI.com; YETIcustomshop.com; YETI Authorized on the Amazon Marketplace; our corporate sales initiatives; increasing the number of our own retail stores; and our international YETI websites. In 2017, we had nearly 29.5 million visits to YETI.com and YETIcustomshop.com, of which 16.7 million were unique visitors and 0.8 million resulted in purchases. We believe we will continue to grow visitors to YETI.com and convert a portion of them to our customers. With YETIcustomshop.com, we believe there are significant opportunities to expand our licensing portfolio in sports and entertainment, along with numerous opportunities to further drive customized consumer and corporate sales. We began selling through YETI Authorized on the Amazon Marketplace in late 2016 and have enjoyed rapid reach expansion and sales growth since that time. Based upon our growth to date, we are optimistic about continued expansion through this important distribution channel.
“In 2017, we opened our flagship retail store in Austin, which is a showroom for our products as well as an event space. Sales from our flagship store have continued to grow since its opening. Building on the strong response to our flagship store, we intend to open a company store for employees and additional retail stores in the second half of 2018 or in 2019.”
