"Texas talks to our customers...to the people we are accustomed to selling to," Brett Saevitzon, president and CEO of Purebeauty, tells GlobeSt.com. The Texas launch of the upscale retail venue will bring stores to the Arbors on Preston Road in North Dallas; and Champions Village, Rice Village and River Oaks, all in Houston. A fifth lease, a standard five-year retail package, is still being negotiated. All will open in the summer, with Rice Village taking the lead June 19. In the next two years, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston each will get another seven shops; Austin will get four; and San Antonio makes the list with a couple locations.

Once the Texas wave gets under way, Florida will be seated next as the retailer pushes East in a plan to open 40 stores in 2004. By 2005, Saevitzon says the portfolio will contain close to 150 stores, with the collection featuring premier sites in the northeast. Right now, there are 50 shops in California, three in Arizona and one in Las Vegas: all 2,500-sf boutique designs and corporate owned.

Saevitzon has hired Christopher Thomas, vice president of Dallas-based Weitzman Group, to find and sign the Dallas locations while Walter Salek of Read, King & Luther in Houston steers the South Texas search. "Dallas," Saevitzon says, "has been somewhat difficult to find the right location because there's usually someone in there." He's coming to Dallas in a few days to tour the town for some possible matches to his private label.