Friday, November 19, 2010

“Collective Brands to Open Stride Rite Kids Shoe Stores in China - BusinessWeek” plus 1 more

“Collective Brands to Open Stride Rite Kids Shoe Stores in China - BusinessWeek” plus 1 more


Collective Brands to Open Stride Rite Kids Shoe Stores in China - BusinessWeek

Posted: 16 Nov 2010 03:54 AM PST

November 16, 2010, 4:16 PM EST

By Lauren Coleman-Lochner

(Updates share price in eighth paragraph.)

Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Collective Brands Inc. is planning to take its Stride Rite children's shoe brand to the world's most populous market, opening stores in mainland China next year, its chief executive officer said.

The company, based in Topeka, Kansas, is teaming up with Li & Fung Retailing and will also open stores in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore starting in December, Matthew Rubel said yesterday in a telephone interview. Li & Fung will develop stores, e-commerce and wholesale business for Collective in Asia. Closely held Li & Fung Retailing isn't related to the publicly traded company of similar name.

Collective, which operates the Payless ShoeSource chain, is pegging growth on international expansion, opening stores in Russia and the Philippines this year and expanding in the Middle East. The retailer is entering China with a "prestige" brand to meet demand from a growing middle class and because lower- priced goods are made and widely available there, Rubel said.

"They have the one-child policy," he said. "Think about how many adults there are to spend on that one child."

Rubel declined to say how many stores are planned. Li & Fung Retailing, which will run them, will be "aggressive" about identifying potential sites, he said.

International sales accounted for 13 percent of Collective's revenue last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The company expects that to grow to more than 20 percent by 2013, a spokeswoman said.

Collective began international franchising of Payless stores about 18 months ago and predicts that it will have about 700 locations within five years, including at least 300 in Indonesia, where it announced an agreement with a unit of publicly held retailer PT Mitra Adiperkasa last month.

Collective Brands rose 23 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $15.76 at 4:03 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Its brands include Saucony and Keds.

--Editors: Margot Slade, Romaine Bostick

To contact the reporter on this story: Lauren Coleman-Lochner in New York at llochner@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Robin Ajello at rajello@bloomberg.net

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php
Five Filters featured article: Beyond Hiroshima - The Non-Reporting of Falluja's Cancer Catastrophe.

White iPhone Kid Fears Apple's Mighty Wrath - Gothamist.com

Posted: 19 Nov 2010 11:14 AM PST

111910whitephone.jpg The teenager who's made bank selling white iPhone conversion kits on his website is anxiously waiting for the other shoe to drop. 17-year-old Fei Lam was recently contacted by a private investigator whom he suspected was working for Apple—the dick accused him of selling stolen goods, but Lam insists he gets the parts directly from Apple's overseas supplier, through a mysterious business contact. Now Lam's hired a lawyer, who tells the Observer that the private eye has been pulled off the case. And the lawyer's been told that Apple is now handling the matter personally. Sounds like Lam might want to, ahem, go on the lam.

"We're just waiting to hear from them officially," says the attorney, referring to the heavies at Apple. Meanwhile, Lam's been deluged with orders since the story broke. "Traffic to the site this month is equal to all the other months combined," Lam crows. "I am just overwhelmed with emails." But he knows it's time to cash in while he can, because Apple is a jealous God, and is poised to crush him for his insolence. "I'm feeling pretty stressed, knowing it's the Almighty Apple who is coming after me," Lam said moments before the line went dead.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php
Five Filters featured article: Beyond Hiroshima - The Non-Reporting of Falluja's Cancer Catastrophe.

0 comments:

Post a Comment