Now with 263 stores in 34 states, Pittsburgh-based Dick's plans to increase its store count by 15% in each of the next eight years. The chain plans to end 2006 with 295 stores, having opened 40 units this year.
"We have as much open field as any category in the industry," said Mike Hines, EVP and CFO. The market leaders account for only 16% of the sporting goods industry's $50 billion in sales.
The company's 2004 acquisition of Galyan's was primarily a real estate play, and has succeeded in expanding Dick's into the Western US, said Ed Stack, chairman and CEO. Even so, the chain is more dominant east of the Mississippi, and Dick's still can expand significantly there.
"We can double the size of the business with the footprint we have today," Stack said. "I don't know of any company that can double its business just east of the Mississippi."
To assist in the expansion, Dick's is developing processes to ensure that regional sports preferences are reflected in each store's merchandise mix.
"We've grown in concentric circles, which has allowed us to get to know the markets and act like local retailers, versus one that is national in scope," Stack said.
Landlords are eager to have the chain, and other mall tenants are receptive, Hines observed. "We have more choices than we know what to do with," he said. "We don't provide competition [to mall retailers]. They encourage mall owners to include us in the mix."
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