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Shopping Centers Today -> February 2004
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ESPRIT COMING BACK TO UNITED STATES
BY IAN RITTER
Apparel retailer Esprit, which moved its headquarters from California to Hong Kong in the late 1970s, is poised to make a comeback in the United States. The company says it plans to open as many as 20 stores in the New York City area, starting with six this year, though it would not disclose how many it will open in the country on the whole.
The chain, popular among juniors in the 1980s, closed its 20 retail and 20 outlet stores in the United States last year, but its clothing is still sold in department stores such as Dillard’s, Macy’s and Marshall Field’s. Now the company wants to make the U.S. market its largest. Its lines range from casual to upscale and include men’s and children’s as well as women’s wear.
Esprit has more than 600 stores in about 6,000 locations worldwide. The chain has bought back its brand from U.S. franchisees and now plans to own and operate all its own stores; it will also be reaching out to women in their late 20s and early 30s here, rather than just juniors.
“The way that we’ve grown up outside of the States is a different brand strategy,” said Jerome Griffith, Esprit’s global retail manager. “Over the course of time, we’ve sort of grown up with our customer.” Now Esprit will compete with the likes of Ann Taylor, Gap and J. Crew here, he says.
Madison HGCD, a New York City-based brokerage firm is seeking spaces for Esprit nationally. The firm has signed a lease for a 10,000-square-foot store in downtown Manhattan that will include an in-store café; that unit is scheduled to open by the fall, says HGCD President Richard Hodos. And Esprit seeks leases for five other stores to open by year-end in the New York metro area, Manhattan and surrounding upscale malls and lifestyle and outlet centers. Altogether, the company’s goal is to have up to 20 units in the New York area, with a maximum of four in Manhattan.
“We’re not going to jump to the West Coast right away,” Hodos said. “They want to get the first six open, and make sure they’re right, before they do 50.” When it does reach California, it will be a homecoming of sorts. Esprit was started there in 1968.
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