Just for Feet's Ruttenberg Wants to Be Biggest:
Bloomberg Forum
Bloomberg
April 6, 1998, 2:46 p.m. PT
Just for Feet's Ruttenberg Wants to Be Biggest: Bloomberg Forum
Birmingham, Alabama, April 6 (Bloomberg) -- Just for Feet
Inc. will add 25 of its larger-format sporting-goods stores and
30 to 35 smaller locations this year, continuing its expansion in
a bid to become the largest sports-apparel retailer in the U.S.
The Birmingham, Alabama-based chain has a two-pronged
approach: Build 25,000-square-foot Just for Feet stores in
locations like New York City's Times Square and Oklahoma City,
and smaller stores under the Athletic Attic and Imperial Sports
names as it grows in other metropolitan areas and smaller cities.
With such expansion plans, Just for Feet intends to become
more competitive with retailers like Venator Group Inc.'s Foot
Locker and Champs stores, Oshman's Sporting Goods Inc. and The
Sports Authority Inc.
''This country can take about 400 Just for Feet stores''
without affecting sales at its other locations, Chief Executive
Harold Ruttenberg told the Bloomberg Forum. ''We have the smaller-
store format going for us, which will allow us to grow forever.''
A slowdown in sales of products from Nike Inc. at other
sporting-goods retailers hasn't affected Just for Feet's sales,
added Ruttenberg, because his stores sell more to families and
hard-core athletes rather than teenagers and young adults.
'Not as Fashion-Driven'
''We're doing slightly more business as a percentage of our
business with Nike than a year ago,'' said Ruttenberg. ''We
haven't seen the same slowdown with Nike as our competitors have,
and I guess the reason for that is we're not as fashion-driven as
they are.''
Just for Feet, the No. 3 sports-apparel retailer behind
Footstar Inc.'s Footaction stores and Foot Locker, currently has
82 larger stores and 140 smaller stores. Eleven new larger stores
will open in the first quarter ending April 30, and 18 by the
back-to-school shopping season, Ruttenberg said.
''We want to become the dominant player in the industry,''
the CEO said. ''Within 10 years, we will pass Foot Locker.''
Just for Feet could open another 60 to 100 of smaller stores
in 1999, and is about to open a new prototype location, he said.
''There are many metropolitan markets where there are corners
that Athletic Attic can go that a Just for Feet can't,'' said
Ruttenberg.
Ruttenberg said he wasn't worried about plans by Venator
Group, formerly Woolworth Corp., to spend more than $1 billion to
open and remodel its sporting-goods stores.
''It's a proven fact that as we have moved across the
country, we have taken market share dramatically,'' he said.
''There's absolutely no sign of anything getting in our way.''
--Chris Roush in Atlanta (404) 524-1644, through the Princeton |
