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Non-Tech : Bed, Bath, and Beyond (BBBY) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Frederick Langford who wrote (19)	10/2/1998 3:26:00 PM
From: Frederick Langford	Respond to of 78

Excellent interview with CFO September 25, 1998: 2:23 p.m. ET Bed Bath & Beyond NEW YORK (CNNfn) - The domestic merchandise and home-furnishings company Bed Bath and Beyond reported a 29-percent rise in second-quarter profits. Those results topped Wall Street's estimates. <Picture>The stock is trading higher, up about 10 percent to about $25 -- despite a 208-point decline in the Dow Jones industrial average. <Picture>Bed, Bath & Beyond's (BBBY) chief financial officer Ron Curwin joined "Street Sweep" with more on the company's earnings performance and future growth. <Picture>Here's a partial transcript of that interview. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ JAN HOPKINS, CNNfn ANCHOR, STREET SWEEP: Part of the reason for the increase in earnings is that each store sold more. How do you do that? <Picture>RON CURWIN, CFO, BED, BATH & BEYOND: Well, basically, we're very oriented toward the customer-service aspect. We also like to keep full stocks in those stores, offer a very exciting shopping environment and offer good everyday low-price value. Basically, we concentrate on what the customer is looking for and cater to that need. <Picture>JOHN METAXAS, CNNfn ANCHOR, STREET SWEEP: Even a layman looking at your situation would think you have the perfect environment right now. Home sales are strong. Interest rates are low. The consumer is flush with cash if he's invested in the stock market. How sensitive are you to those economic factors and to the economy in general? <Picture>CURWIN: I'm sure we're sensitive to it. Certainly a lot of the analysts who follow our stock point that out from time to time, but I like to think that our results depend more upon the corporate culture that we've developed over the many years -- which as I said before concentrates on the customer. We put a lot of empowerment in the hands of store managers because we think they are best able to address the local needs. But certainly housing starts and interest rates have to be a factor in the home goods business. <Picture>HOPKINS: So that means that a store in South Carolina might have different things than a store in Connecticut. <Picture>CURWIN: I think the basic assortments are the same, but certainly the emphasis could vary from store to store. We don't have one corporate goal of having more hardlines versus softlines. I think the mix in the stores takes on the needs of the community, and most of the reordering of the merchandise is done at the store level by the store manager and his or her people. <Picture>METAXAS: And in fact you have very different kinds of stores unlike other home retailers, who may have only one format. You have several formats don't you? <Picture>CURWIN: We don't have two stores. We have 163 stores today. We don't have two that are alike. We have different footprints. Mostly the stores we've been opening recently tend to be about 40,000-square feet but there are no two alike. <Picture>METAXAS: And now you're expanding into the super-store category, which obviously companies like Home Depot (HD) and Wal-Mart (WMT) have done well with. Do you see that as a key to the future? <Picture>CURWIN: Yes, well, I think our company sort of invented the super-store in the home-goods area and we have been developing that since 1985. All the stores open since then have been of the larger store variety with some as large as 85,000 square feet. <Picture>HOPKINS: Are you benefiting from lower prices coming from Asia? <Picture>CURWIN: I guess it's fair to say we're benefiting somewhat, but the import component of our product mix still remains very small. But certainly. <Picture>HOPKINS: Most of it is made domestically. <Picture>CURWIN: Most of the merchandise we sell in our stores is procured domestically. <Picture>METAXAS: Now as I understand it, you have some 159 stores, right. <Picture>CURWIN: 159 at the end of the quarter and we've opened four so far in September. <Picture>METAXAS: How many Bed Bath & Beyond's do you think the country can handle? <Picture>CURWIN: Well, analysts have estimated the potential for the whole home-goods super-store industry to be about 1200 stores, and we think that we could probably have about half of those -- or maybe 500 or 600 would be a reasonable number at this point. <Picture>METAXAS: But by when? <Picture>CURWIN: I would say as fast as our resource and our ability to open them would seem to dictate. But we're at a very planned rate of about 25 to 30 percent square footage additions each year. <Picture: Link to top> home \| business unusual \| hot stories \| contents \| search \| stock quotes \| help Copyright © 1998 Cable News Network, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.