Sportsman’s Warehouse of Midvale, UT is planning to open 30 stores in 12 states by the end of next year. This aggressive growth strategy will almost triple the current square footage of the company – bringing it to 48 storefronts from 18 currently.

Stuart Utgaard took over Sportsman’s Warehouse in 1996 and reportedly instilled a unique culture to the company. “There's a Sportsman's Warehouse culture I've never seen in any other company,” Michael L. Van Orden, chief technology officer, told a local paper.

This culture seems to be that of frantic expansion. Utgaard has been known to show up at a new store with loads of product to stock on the completion date – whether construction is done or not.

Utgaard says that he tries to grow his company at least 50% a month. He told a local paper, “We have a saying here: You better run fast or you'll get run over.”
He went on to say that a new Sportsman’s Warehouse usually is set in ten days “our competitors usually take four-and-a-half months. We don't pace ourselves… “Nobody in our industry has ever grown as fast as we have grown,” he said in a published report.

“I'm very confident that we'll do fine against Cabela's, Bass Pro Shop, Gander Mountain, REI, Sports Authority or whoever else you want to name,” said Utgaard.

Utgaard handles all of the company’s site selection and construction management, and has even been known to run the forklift in order to get a location open in time. No one is above manual labor — the company president Dale Smith has been seen assembling tents to help with the merchandising in new stores.

It appears that Utgaard likes to keep an eye on things as well. He has implemented a streaming video feed from each of his stores into the company headquarters. This measure was taken to provide more security for the companies higher end inventory, and to keep an eye on struggling stores.

Utgaard estimated Sportsman’s Warehouse had $190 million in sales for the year and projects sales will exceed $250 million by mid-2004. The company should reach the $1 billion dollar mark by 2008 if all goes according to plan.


>>>This growth looks great on paper, but you’ve got to wonder, when will it all end?