"The strong customer response builds our confidence in the spring selling season," CEO Mark Hoffman said yesterday in delivering the mid-year results of the mall-based specialty retailer, a chain whose clothing and accessories cater to teens and young women in their 20's. "With our fashion content on target and new receipts arriving at stores, I believe we are well-positioned for the balance of the third quarter," Hoffman said. That should translate to a "low single-digit" comp store increase, he relayed, "assuming no significant change in the overall retailing environment."

Even in preparing to launch an e-commerce platform by July, a medium that the retailer is admittedly coming into "late in the game," Charlotte Russe plans 50 new brick-and-mortar locations in FY 2007, says Hoffman. The count as of mid-year was just 11, although a total of 41 have opened during the past 12 months.

The chain is spread out from Maine to Hawaii, operating in 43 states and Puerto Rico. With a store at the Oaks opening in Oakdale this September, Charlotte Russe will have 60 stores in its home state, the most anywhere, followed by 42 in Florida and 28 in Texas.