Specialty, discount lead in growth

NEW YORK — The field of leading home textiles retailers achieving all four top performance measurements of growth dropped to two players among the Top 50: Bed Bath & Beyond and Kohl's.

But while neither achieved higher rankings across all four measurements, Union, NJ-based Bed Bath held on to its No. 1 position in net sales growth and increased its ranking to No. 5 in net unit growth and to No. 3 in percent unit growth. However, it dropped a slot in percent sales growth to No. 5.

Kohl's moved up to No. 5 from No. 7 in percent unit growth, and to No. 8 from No. 9 in net unit growth. The Menomonee Falls, WI, retailer dropped to No. 7 from No. 2 in 2001 in percent sales growth, and slid to No. 5 from No. 4 in net sales growth.

The breakout of these performance measures — percent sales growth, net sales growth, percent unit growth and net unit growth — follows the annual Top 50 Retailing Giants ranking that appeared in Home Textiles Today last week.

Showing the results of its march across the country, Anna's Linens of Costa Mesa, CA, led the list of percent unit increases with 25.7 percent, representing an addition of 18 units.

Goodlettsville, TN-based Dollar General, already boasting 5,540 units, added 573 to rank No. 1 in net unit growth for 2002.

As noted, Bed Bath & Beyond topped the list of net sales growth with $427 million, and a newcomer to the Top 50 ranks, Restoration Hardware of Corte Madera, CA, topped the percent sales growth performance with a gain of 164 percent.

Overall, for the players on these performance rankings, four made three of the four charts: Lowe's, Ross Dress for Less Stores, Linens 'n Things and Pottery Barn; and eight scored on two of the four: Anna's Linens, T. J. Maxx/Marshalls, HomeGoods, Wal-Mart, Restoration Hardware, Pier 1, Family Dollar and Target.

From a distribution channel breakout, only Bloomingdale's, New York, and Kohl's represented the department stores.

Discounters, with six on the rankings, were represented by Wal-Mart, Bentonville, AR; Target, Minneapolis; Big Lots, Columbus, OH; Family Dollar, Matthews, NC; Dollar General, Goodlettsville, TN; Ross Dress for Less, Newark, CA.

In the largest of the distribution channels represented on these breakouts, the specialty store group included Anna's Linens, Bed Bath & Beyond, Linens 'n Things, Framingham, MA-based HomeGoods and Ft. Worth, TX-based Pier. These were joined by Pottery Barn, San Francisco, and Restoration Hardware, both newcomers to the Top 50 rankings.

Only Pottery Barn, which includes its catalog revenues along with its retail sales in its Top 50 rankings, represented the catalog segment.

Looking at the breakouts individually, Bed Bath in net sales growth far outperformed No. 1 home textiles retailer Wal-Mart, which registered a $335 million gain, followed by Target with a gain of $255 million. Linens 'n Things followed in fourth place with an increase of $174 million.

Following Restoration Hardware's strong home textiles percent sales growth of 164 percent was its close specialty store/catalog competitor Pottery Barn, with a 31.6 percent increase, and Anna's Linens, in third place, with a 30.7 percent increase, and HomeGoods, just slightly behind in fourth place, with 30.6 percent.

Family Dollar was in second place for net unit growth with 454, following close competitor Dollar General in first place with 573 new stores. Home improvement retailer Lowe's, Wilkesboro, NC, added 110 stores to rank third, and Target ranked fourth with 94 new stores.

In a very tight ranking following Anna's Linens, in first place in percent unit growth, was Pottery Barn at 24.3 percent, Bed Bath & Beyond with 23.7 percent and HomeGoods with 22.5 percent.