Dive Brief:
- Kitchenware and culinary retailer Sur La Table plans to grow its national footprint through new store openings. The company said last week that it plans to open new stores in upstate New York and Connecticut. It also plans to re-enter Massachusetts with a store in Natick.
- Sur La Table also said it has recently expanded its private label offering by introducing a new hand-glazed tableware collection. The retailer recently added Calphalon and Great Jones cookware to its roster of brand partners.
- The culinary-focused retailer is also expanding its in-store cooking classes. As part of the expansion, Sur La Table said its popular Date Night Series cooking classes will now be offered on additional weeknights and Sunday evenings.
Dive Insight:
Nearly three years after a joint venture of Marquee Brands and CSC Generation bought Sur La Table out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy for nearly $90 million, the culinary retailer has continued an operational transformation.
The acquisition by the joint venture added Sur La Table to a portfolio of well-known apparel, lifestyle, home and kitchenware brands that includes food media business America’s Test Kitchen, Martha Stewart, Emeril Lagasse, Body Glove and Motherhood Maternity.
The pandemic led Sur La Table to temporarily suspend its cooking classes and store sales, the company said in court documents at the time of its bankruptcy filing in 2020. Ahead of the bankruptcy filing, Sur La Table’s store footprint outgrew demand as foot traffic fell.
At the time of its bankruptcy filing, Sur La Table said it had $230 million of in-store revenue, and $80 million in annual e-commerce revenue. But its online revenue was not enough to offset the company’s $4 million in monthly rent expenses while stores were temporarily closed.
The company also struggled with capital expenditures related to installing commercial-quality kitchens in its stores to host cooking classes and demonstrations, Retail Dive previously reported. But those issues now appear to be in the past and Sur La Table, which was founded in Seattle in 1972, is moving decisively to expand its business on multiple fronts.
“Following our recent retail expansion earlier this year, we are thrilled to continue the momentum with growth of our Sur La Table retail and e-commerce business, as well [as] other key sectors of our brand including our private label collection, and growing roster of brand partners,” Jordan Voloshin, CEO of Sur La Table, said in an announcement. “We are delighted to be able to continue to give our customers the latest and greatest offerings, as well as the innovative tools needed to create in the kitchen.”
Experiential retail is a centerpiece of Sur La Table’s in-store and customer experiences.
Sur La Table's new stores are opening in the Natick Mall in Massachusetts, at Stuyvesant Plaza in Albany, New York, and in Darien, Connecticut, at Darien Commons. The Natick and Albany stores are slated to open this month, and the Darien store, the company’s second in the state, is set to open in September.
Including the soon-to-open locations, the retailer listed 58 stores in 22 states on its website on Tuesday.
Sur La Table stores’ experiential offerings include an ‘Ask a Chef’ program where customers can receive in-store advice and recommendations from resident chefs and culinary experts. Customers can also book a one-on-one in-store session for hands-on culinary training. The stores also offer product demos. Brand specialists, who receive specialized training, are also present in stores to support the overall customer buying experience.
On the brand partnerships front, in addition to Calphalon and Great Jones, Sur La Table says it is the exclusive launch partner for GreenPan’s Craft Noire Cookware Collection. The retailer also partnered with Jura to launch the Jura J8 automatic coffee machine.
