Kohl's plans to enter new markets

Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 11/19/2001 12:00:00 AM

NEW YORK —

Ending the third quarter with a 19.9 percent store footage gain compared to a year ago, and a 20.7 percent increase in selling floor footage, Kohl's readies for its continued expansion plans next year, entering three new markets in the first quarter.

Next March, Kohl's will grand open 12 stores in the new Houston market, as well as a retrofitted distribution center in Texas that it acquired from Wards.

April will see expansion into the Boston market with 13 former Bradlees stores, as well as the opening of a brand new DC in New York that will handle the entire tri-state area. Nashville, another new market, will also have four stores open in the quarter.

The Southwest expansion plans in 2003 and 2004 are on target, said Larry Montgomery, ceo.

He added that he was "very pleased with the quality of our real estate" in California and "what we were able to get for our dollar out there."

Several stores are up for relocation next year, Montgomery said, but "most of our efforts will be put into remodeling existing markets and expanding some of these buildings where necessary to get them up to prototype size."