"Our customers continue to respond luxury, and to intensive and personalized service," said Burton M. Tansky, president and CEO of Neiman-Marcus, during Wednesday's earnings conference call. "As a result, our full-price selling remained strong through the holidays."
According to Tansky, the company's strategy of focusing on "share-wallet"—that is, selling more to each customer—also paid off. "We believe there's a strong correlation between our strong performance and our sales training program that emphasizes developing strong relationships with the customers," he noted. "One indication of the success of this program is that our average transaction grew once again this quarter."
The holidays were a particularly good selling season for the upmarket retailer. "Our customers purchased luxury gifts with great enthusiasm in all our merchandise divisions," Tansky added. "Some highlights included women's handbags, women's shoes, designer jewelry, and resort and early-spring deliveries. Even men's clothing had a strong quarter."
Looking ahead, Neiman Marcus is planning to open two new stores in fall 2005, including one in San Antonio (120,000 sf)—its first in Texas in about two decades—and another in Boca Raton, FL (136,000 sf). In 2006, the company will open a store in Charlotte, NC, and in 2007, one in Austin, TX and another in Natick, MA. A southern California store is planned for 2008, and approvals may be obtained soon for development of a Long Island store.
"We are working with developers on other sites, which I hope to be able to announce in the next few months," Tansky said, adding that it was too soon to tell what kind of real estate opportunities might arise because of the consolidation of Federated and May, but that Neiman Marcus was keeping an eye on the situation. Neiman Marcus currently operates two brands of specialty stores: 35 Neiman Marcus stores nationwide, and two Bergdorf Goodman stores in Manhattan.
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