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WELL SUITED

K&G Fashion Superstores keep busy professionals looking sharp for less

By Donna Mitchell

Mark Twain once quipped: “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.” So in the process of helping those who want to make an impression but are budget-challenged, K&G Fashion Superstores aims to dominate the market on discounted designer suits and career clothing.

This discount apparel chain, a division of Houston-based Men’s Wearhouse, offers the price-conscious a broad selection of designer clothes, with a heavy emphasis on tailored career suits for men and women. K&G also sells formal clothes, including tuxedos, and dressy suits for women, as well as smart-looking sweaters and leather jackets.

“We want to own the suit business and career clothing in the men’s and ladies’ markets,” said Chris Zender, president of K&G Men’s Co., which operates the chain. Office and dress suits dominate the selection at the K&G Fashion Superstore at Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street in New York City. The two-story facility opened in December, and already enjoys a loyal following.

The chain’s stores typically carry about 4,000 men’s suits. Regie Noel, a 24-year-old who works in the area, stopped in on a Friday afternoon in January to survey the men’s selection. “For a store in the dead center of Manhattan, the prices are pretty good,” he said. “The selection, as you can see, is very wide.” Noel says he has shopped there four times, not just for himself but for his father too.

The store carries 100 percent wool, three-button men’s suits from Marco Biella for $99.99 and three-button Albert Nipon suits for $219.99. In the women’s section, there are Michael Kors cotton sweaters at $9.99 apiece and ensembles of jacket, skirt and pants for between $59.99 and $89.99.

The stores, which range from 20,000 to 25,000 square feet, offer first-run, name-brand clothing generally priced at about 25 percent below department store prices, company officials say.

This bargain warehouse approach to selling clothes appeared to be a hit with consumers interviewed recently at the Manhattan store. Laurie, for one, who declined to give her last name, stopped in to satisfy her curiosity and ended up buying three of those Michael Kors sweaters before catching a train to Connecticut.

“The [sweater] colors are beautiful,” she said. The merchandise is well laid out, she added, and items are easy to find. The store seems especially neat and tidy for a discount store, a category not noted for aesthetics, she pointed out. “It is better merchandised than, say, Marshalls.”

Tailoring and alteration services are available at every one of the chain’s stores.

Entrepreneur Steven Greenspan started the company in Atlanta in 1992, specializing in selling men’s tailored clothes at discount prices. In 1996 the company went public and then grew to a nine-store chain, with units in Dallas, New York and New Jersey, plus some outlet center stores. It stayed focused on men’s clothes, but operated only three days a week — Friday, Saturday and Sunday — to contain costs, Zender says. That changed when Men’s Wearhouse bought the company in 1999 and began offering women’s apparel.

Analysts seem to be as impressed as the customers. “K&G should continue to generate strong same-store sales owing to an improved women’s assortment, better customer service and additional operating days,” wrote Dana Telsey, a retail analyst at Bear Stearns, in a report last October. Though Men’s Wearhouse doesn’t break out sales numbers by division, the company as a whole posted sales gains of 11.5 percent to $1.7 billion in 2005, with comps rising 8.4 percent and 2.7 percent at the retailer’s U.S. and Canadian stores, respectively.

K&G is looking for anchor space at power and open-air centers with a regional draw, says Thomas L. Jennings, senior vice president of real estate at Men’s Wearhouse. Mall stores sometimes lack the perceived ease of entry and exit that many male customers prefer.

With about 77 stores totaling about 1.8 million square feet of space, K&G plans to expand from the 50 U.S. markets it currently inhabits. The company’s plan is to target the Eastern half of the U.S. for near-term expansion, with plans to open at least 15 units a year in major markets, Jennings says.

And though K&G is pushing its suit business, it is willing to try other clothing lines. So-called urban wear, athletic shoes and special sizes are among other emerging categories, and Bear Stearns says it’s adding boys’ dress clothes to some locations.