Specialty retailers, Kohl's stay on growth charts

NEW YORK — Only Bed Bath & Beyond, Linens 'n Things and Kohl's achieved the four top measurements of growth among the Top 50 retailers for 2001.

But interestingly, Linens 'n Things and Kohl's each dropped in the rankings for growth in the four segments, while Bed Bath & Beyond dropped in three but retained its first place slot in net sales growth.

The compilation of the four segments — percent sales growth, net sales growth, percent unit growth and net unit growth — follows the rankings of the 11th annual Home Textiles Today Retailing Giants Top 50 last week.

Brylane Home was the only catalog on the four growth segment rankings, and Macy's East and Macy's West joined Kohl's as members of the department store community, albeit on a more upscale tier than the mass market Kohl's.

The discount department stores were represented by Wal-Mart, Target, Ross Dress for Less, T.J. Maxx/Marshalls, Dollar General and Family Dollar, while Anna's Linens, Bed Bath & Beyond, Linens 'n Things, Luxury Linens, Pier 1 Imports, and IKEA made up the specialty store community. Costco and Sam's Club were the players for the warehouse club retailers. Lowe's, a newcomer to both the Top 50 and the Top 10 segments, was the sole home improvement retailer.

The segment rankings have new members that previously were on the Top 50, such as Brylane, Costco, Macy's East, Macy's West, IKEA, Luxury Linens, Pier 1, Sam's Club, Ross Dress for Less Stores and T.J. Maxx/Marshalls, as well as newcomers to the Top 50 like Anna's Linens, HomeGoods and Lowe's.

Anna's Linens, one of the newcomers to the Top 50, rocketed to the top 10 in three growth areas, including the No. 1 spot in percent sales growth, No. 9 in net sales growth and No. 8 in percent unit growth.

These new retailers displaced fast movers of 2000 such as The Company Store, Stein Mart, Carson Pirie Scott, Spiegel, Kmart, Value City Department Stores, Meijer, Tuesday Morning and Big Lots.

New to the Top 10 in percent sales growth, in addition to Anna's Linens with a stellar 37.5 percent sales increase, were IKEA, Pier 1 Imports, Brylane Home, Sam's Club and Target. They joined regulars such as Kohl's, Bed Bath & Beyond, Linens 'n Things and Ross Dress for Less.

After Bed Bath & Beyond, which held on to its No. 1 slot in net sales growth, newcomers to this segment were T.J. Maxx/Marshalls, IKEA, Pier 1 Imports, Anna's Linens, Brylane Home and Ross Dress for Less, which joined the returning members from last year's Top 10 in this segment — Wal-Mart, Target, Kohl's, and Linens 'n Things.

Rapidly expanding HomeGoods led the field in percent of unit growth, adding 57.8 percent to its store base. Macy's West, buoyed by the acquisition of Hawaii-based Liberty House by parent Federated Department Stores, racked up a 35.3 percent unit growth.

Looking at net sales gains, Bed Bath & Beyond led with a $263 million increase, significantly ahead of Wal-Mart, with a $191 million increase, and Target ,with a $171 million gain, and Kohl's with a $100 million gain. These four posted a nine-digit sales increase.

In first place for net unit growth, Dollar General, which continued its new-store expansion, opened 540 new units in 2001, up 10.8 percent, but down significantly from its year-earlier growth of 707 units, or a 16.5 percent increase for 2000 versus '99.

Similarly, Family Dollar which was in second place in net unit growth for '00, held on to its position for '01, adding 466 stores, or a 12.2 percent increase. This compared with the prior year's increase of 376 stores, or a 10.9 percent increase.

Even with 101 new stores that pulled it way in front for the No. 1 home textiles retailer, Wal-Mart was in third place for net unit growth, a 3.8 percent gain in units.

But looking at the percentage increases in net unit growth, both Bed Bath and Beyond and Linens 'n Things were the clear leaders in terms of percentages. Bed Bath & Beyond added 85 stores, up 27.3 percent, while Linens 'n Things added 60 units, up 21.2 percent, the only two of the 10 with percentage increases in the 20s.