In its conference call with Cowan and Co. analysts, Urban Outfitters Inc. outlined several growth opportunities that it said would help the company build on record comp growth for Holiday ’09. URBN, which operates under the Anthropologie, Free People, Leifsdottir, Terrain and Urban Outfiiters brands, said it would grow sales through existing and direct business, new concepts and store expansion into Europe and other continents.
Management for the compay said URBN has identified growth possibilities in North America, Europe and Asia and added that the company would improve store productivity by incorporating a new planning and allocation package that is “very visual and allows merchants and designers to actually look at the store on a screen and see what it will look like based on the orders that they have in the system.”
As noted, representatives called continued expansion into Europe a “great opportunity,” noting that current stores in England and Germany have been an indicator that there is vast potential for successful expansion to the rest of the continent.
The company has also implemented a customer relationship management program at its Anthropologie store to better gather information about its core consumer on a retail basis.
Management also said an increased emphasis would be place on the companies direct business, which currently boast a commendable 16% rate of market penetration. Management added that the company would develop some home grown internal concepts, and would “probably do some small acquisitions” that may jump start a new concept.
Likewise, the company has also introduced a software package called TradeStone to better manage its SKUs and streamline the production process to reduce lead times to three to four weeks from 13 to 14 weeks.
