Joe's Jeans Expanding Its Retail Profile
Premium-denim company Joe’s Jeans opened its sixth retail store, in Texas, adding to its slowly growing stable of apparel outposts that have helped boost the company’s revenues.
The newest store for the company, based in the Los Angeles area, is located at the Prime Outlets in San Marcos, Texas. It joins three other Joe’s Jeans outlet stores, located in Central Valley, N.Y.; Camarillo, Calif.; and Orlando Fla. Two full-price stores are located in San Francisco near Union Square and in Chicago.
“Our retail division has been performing well, as evidenced by a 176 percent same-store-sales increase on Black Friday [Nov. 27]. In addition, we continue to see a very positive same-store-sales trend throughout December,” said Marc Crossman, president and chief executive of Joe’s Jeans. “We look forward to building upon this success in 2010, as we plan significant growth for our retail division with the coming of new stores in locations throughout the country.”
Joe’s Jeans’ venture into the retail world follows other Los Angeles blue-jeans companies that have decided to diversify their business model. True Religion has been aggressively expanding into retail and opened 28 stores in 2009. Its latest venture was a new 1,100-square-foot store that opened Dec. 21 in Malibu Village in Malibu, Calif. Seven For All Mankind has been slowly opening doors, and Lucky Brand Jeans is also another Los Angeles blue-jeans maker that branched out into retail under the tutelage of its parent company, Liz Claiborne Inc.
As credit has gotten tighter for retailers, many manufacturers believe this is one of the ways to generate more revenue. It has certainly helped Joe’s Jeans, which for many years operated at a net loss.
Joe’s Jeans used to be called Innovo Group Inc. and had a number of blue-jeans labels, including Bow Wow by Shago, Hot Wheels and Fetish by Eve as well as Joe’s Jeans. But in 2007, the company changed its name to Joe’s Jeans, with Joe Dahan being named creative director, and decided to stay with just one label.
The metamorphosis has paid off. In a tough economic climate, Joe’s Jeans’ revenues and net income have grown in the last year.
For the nine months ended Aug. 31, 2009, the company’s revenues grew to $55 million, compared with $51.4 million during the same period in 2008. Net income for the first nine months of 2009 was $4 million, compared with $3.7 million during the same period in 2008.—Deborah Belgum
