New Boss at Anchor Blue Revamps
Tom Sands has been president and chief executive of Anchor Blue Retail Group Inc. for about two weeks, but already he has plans to redesign many of the chain’s stores.
Sands took over the top position on Feb. 5 after Michael Bush resigned as president and chief executive of the teen-oriented retail chain on Feb. 2. The Ontario, Calif.–based chain has 165 Anchor Blue stores and 72 Levi’s Dockers outlets in 37 states.
Sands plans to open 12 stores in 2007 and remodel 20 of the company’s Anchor Blue stores, which carry apparel and accessories. The redesign includes new faccedil;ades, fixtures and floor sets.
He also hopes to revamp the look of 12 of the company’s Levi’s Dockers outlet stores operated under a licensing agreement with Levi Strauss & Co. in San Francisco.
Sands joined Anchor Blue in early 2006 as president of the outlet division. Before that, he was an executive vice president at Gap Inc. in San Francisco, overseeing the company’s 874 Old Navy stores in North America. The bulk of his retail experience comes from working for 19 years at the Target Corp.
Anchor Blue has been around for years but started out as Millers Surplus and then Millers Outpost. In 1981, the company created its own brand, Anchor Blue. In 1996, the company began its switch to the Anchor Blue nameplate.
Sun Capital Partners Inc., a private investment firm based in Boca Raton, Fla., purchased the struggling company in late 2003 after three years of declining same-store sales. Anchor Blue is an affiliate of the investment firm. —Deborah Belgum
