Dollar General eyes home categories in turnaround bid
-- Home Textiles Today, 3/28/2008 1:08:00 PM
Goodlettsville, Tenn. – Even after the home category suffered an 11.7% decline in sales during the fourth quarter, discount merchandiser Dollar General sees an opportunity in home goods as a way to attract more shoppers and have them spend more, the 8,200-plus-unit chain said during its quarterly and yearend earnings call today.
Marking his first Dollar General earnings call, Rick Dreiling, who joined the company in mid-January as ceo, outlined initiatives the chain has implemented for the new year. An “upgraded” offering of home and apparel products is part of the effort.
Looking to increase “basket size” and “encourage customers to buy more in our stores,” he said, Dollar General will soon introduce new categories and products in the home and apparel areas “that our customers consider aspirational and may be buying elsewhere.”
This, he continued, should help drive higher sales and higher margins.
Related to that, Dollar General also plans to reengineer its “treasure hunt” assortment “to offer more structure and more definition, which should ideally result in a greater conversion rate,” Dreiling said.
The company is in the midst of a strategic overhaul. For the year ended February 1, 2008 Dollar General posted a net loss of $12.8 million, compared to net income of $137.9 million in the year prior.
Full year sales of $9.50 billion were up 4.5% from $9.17 billion in the prior year; comps grew 2.1%.
Dollar General is No. 34 on the HTT Top 50 Retailing Giants list, with 2006 home textiles sales of $127 million.Talkback
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