L&T Home: $1 Billion?

HTT Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 11/29/2011 11:05:40 AM

New York - Could Lord & Taylor Home, the recently launched retail operation that takes a home superstore format, become a $1 billion business?
Could be, says Richard Baker, chairman of parent company Hudson's Bay Co.
Speaking at a recent conference sponsored by Women's Wear Daily, Baker, in discussing the new unit, was quoted as saying, "If we get this right, we could have a $1 billion opportunity."
Right now, the operation is significantly more modest. L&T Home, merchandised by the Canadian-based Home Outfitters unit of Hudson's Bay, opened its first two stores this past summer, in Paramus and Shrewsbury, N.J. Adapting the superstore format well known to current Bed Bath & Beyond and former Linens'n Things shoppers, the approximately 30,000-square-foot stores show a classic mix of soft and hard home with a variety of national and private label brands.
It is a very different merchandising story than on the home floor at Lord & Taylor's Fifth Avenue New York City flagship, which is dominated by large Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein cross-merchandised shops. That is apparently a one-off operation not necessarily designed to be rolled out to other branch stores.
But L&T Home, which Baker told the WWD audience represents a $3 million investment, could be another story. He called the operation "a natural extension of the Lord & Taylor brand."