Ian Ritter is national online editor of GlobeSt.RETAIL.
NORTH BERGEN, NJ-The locally based Vitamin Shoppe plans to open 60 to 70 stores next year, according to Corey Bialow, the company's VP of real estate. The company currently has 219 units in 21 states and plans to open 12 new stores by the end of the year.
Though most of the retailer's stores are in the Northeast, the company has a presence in 17 of the country's top 20 MSAs, Bialow says. "Now we're spread throughout the whole East Coast, from the Boston metropolitan area down to Florida. We've really become a national retailer."
Next year, Bialow predicts, Vitamin Shoppe will have signed leases in 45 of the top 50 MSAs. The company is moving into Denver; Las Vegas; Portland, OR; Salt Lake City and Seattle and is looking for stand-alone stores, as well as vacancies in power and strip centers. Last year the company entered California and Texas. The company's units average 4,000 sf.
Vitamin Shoppe was founded in 1977 and opened its first unit in New York City. Its stores carry 25,000 items from 400 brand names as well as company-branded goods.
In late 2002 Bear Stearns Merchant Banking acquired the chain for about $300 million, media outlets reported at the time. Bear Stearns bought apparel chain Aeropostale in 1998. That retailer went public in May. The firm could also take Vitamin Shoppe public some time in the future, Bialow says.
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