Zumiez

For many of us, “action sports” doesn’t really describe our target market anymore. We struggle (or at least I struggle) with words like “youth culture” or “fashion” or “outdoor” to describe it. None of them work very well. They are all correct, but not adequate or complete.  Maybe Zumiez has helped me figure out why. During the conference […]

 The headline I guess is that for its quarter ended August 3rd, Zumiez increased its sales and profits smartly. We have to talk about the impact of the Blue Tomato acquisition (July 4, 2012) and some restructuring costs, but basically things look good on a quarter over quarter basis.  The more interesting issue, however, is the

Zumiez’s 10Q and conference call for its quarter ended May 4th offered some insight into its growth strategy that I think are worth reviewing. Some of it isn’t new, but taken together the comments are interesting.  Some Points of Strategy   At the end of the quarter, Zumiez had 503 stores; 475 in the United States,

I’ve talked before about brands becoming retailers and retailers becoming brands. There’s a lot of uncertainty as to what that would mean and how it would cause the market  to evolve. I’ve also said that the best retailers make the brands they carry credible- not the other way around. That’s true, but I don’t think I completely

Zumiez reported sales growth during the quarter of 16.9% from $154 million to $180 million. Without the Blue Tomato acquisition, sales would have risen 11.7%. The gross profit margin fell from 38.9% to 37.3%. Selling, general and administrative expenses rose from $37.1 million to $45.7 million, or by 23.2%. As a percentage of sales, they rose from 24.1% to

Okay, I don’t mean it. No way I can ignore the financial results. It’s just not the way my mind works. But I was so struck with something President and CEO Rich Brooks said in their conference call that I wanted to start there. He said, as a brief part of a longer answer to an analyst’s question, “…we

Well, this one caught me by surprise, though I guess it was supposed to. No, not that Zumiez bought Blue Tomato, though that caught me by surprise too. What surprised me is that Zumiez has a “…strategic plan to build the leading global action sports retail business.” And, according to the press release, this acquisition is the “next

If it wasn’t so intriguing, it would be getting boring. Zumiez’s sales for the quarter ended April 28, 2012 grew 22.7% to $129.9 million from $105.9 million in the same quarter the previous year. Comparable store sales were up 12.9%. Ecommerce sales rose 7.7% and were 6.2% of the quarter’s total sales. They think ecommerce may eventually be 10%

I know I’ve written about it before, but let’s review the pillars of Zumiez’s strategy as I see them before we get to the numbers. Here’s the link to the 10Q if you’re interested. Find and retain employees who are actively committed to the action sports lifestyle and make sure they are customer service focused. I suspect