“We weren’t treating our own people or our customers very well.”īird came to Plano to see the company’s 540,000-square-foot distribution center and liked what he saw, which included unused office space that could be renovated for the company’s 140 corporate employees. The average customer is in a Garden Ridge store for two hours, so clean restrooms are a necessity, he said. Stores needed organizing and general cleaning, starting with the restrooms. Bird said he found neglected operations ranging from old-school employee policies to stores that had veered away from home, selling books and medical scrubs.
The rebranding and expansion will be self-funded.ĪEA hired Bird, who had experience at Nike, Gap, Old Navy, Allied Signal and Ford, to expand the chain in December 2012. Every store is profitable, and new stores make money the first year they’re open, Bird said. The owners won’t reveal financial figures, but at that time Garden Ridge had annual sales of $388 million, according to published reports. The New York-based private equity firm also owns Tampico and 24 Hour Fitness. Three Cities Research sold Garden Ridge for $715 million to its current owners, AEA Investors, in an October 2011 leveraged buyout. It ended up in bankruptcy in 2004 and owned by private investors. The chain went public and expanded too fast. He sold the business, which at the time had annual sales of $50 million, to investors in 1988. Founder Eric White opened Garden Ridge Pottery in 1979 in Schertz outside San Antonio and his second store in 1986 in Houston.
0 kommentar(er)
