The hottest retailer of the year isn't Costco or Target or Netflix or Amazon.com. It's not Apple Stores, Forever 21 or Whole Foods.
The hottest retailer of the year, according to the annual STORES Hot 100 Retailers list, is Ascena Retail Group. Who is that, might you ask? Ascena was once simply known as Dress Barn, which it owns, along with the chains Maurice's and Justice.
Executives changed the name from Dress Barn, shortly after the acquisition of Tween Brands in 2009, which gave it Justice. After buying a chain geared toward teenagers, the glamorous Dress Barn moniker didn't quite cut it anymore, so then came Ascena.
We tried to find a definition for Ascena online and came up short...spellcheck sure hates it. But we did find this series of quotes by management over at Forbes that describe why the company name was changed from Dress Barn. We guess this sums it up: We wanted a name that was very objective, that tied everything together and aligned the cultures and visions.
Not sure how "Ascena" accomplishes that, but fine.
Anyway, the reason Ascena topped the list was because its sales growth between 2010 and 2009 increased a whopping 58.9%, largely because of the Tween purchase. It was followed by Amazon.com, at 46.2%; Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, at 37.8%; hhgregg, at 36.3%; and Tops Markets, at 33.1%. Click here for the full STORES 100 list.
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