Dive Brief:
- Continuing its small-store format push, The Container Store has opened its 100th location in Princeton, New Jersey, the spatial organization retailer announced Monday.
- The store is the retailer’s sixth small-format location and one of five it plans to debut before March 30. The retailer plans to open another store in Gaithersburg, Maryland, next spring, according to the announcement.
- Its small-format stores aim for higher productivity and feature a Custom Spaces Studio including its Preston, Avera and Elfa lines along with a curated product assortment. The smaller stores have 12,500 selling square feet on average.
Dive Insight:
The opening of its 100th store is part of The Container Store’s efforts to reach its $2 billion revenue target, the company said.
“Opening our 100th store is a significant milestone as we execute our strategic priority of Expanding Our Reach and continue to unlock our long-term growth potential,” CEO and President of The Container Store Satish Malhotra said in a statement. “We continue to be pleased with the productivity of our small-format stores, specifically with the faster adoption of Custom Spaces, which is a key component of future sales growth for The Container Store.”
At the end of Q2, Custom Spaces averaged 39% of sales per store, Malhotra said. The new stores are averaging 60% new shoppers and have high net promoter scores, the executive noted. The locations are part of a turnaround effort that comes during a challenging year.
The Container Store’s financial difficulties landed the company on Retail Dive’s bankruptcy watchlist this fall, with CredtRiskMonitor at the time giving the company a 4% to 9.99% chance of filing for bankruptcy in the following 12 months. In Q1, The Container Store saw consolidated net sales fall 21.1% to $207 million. Those losses continued into the following quarter when the company reported a net sales drop of 19.4% to $219.7 million.
Despite its net sales declines, The Container Store has continued to bolster its Custom Spaces business. In October, the company introduced new offerings for Custom Spaces customers, enabling shoppers to meet with designers and create tailored spaces with new products in its Preston collection and Garage+ by Elfa system.
In addition to enhancing its space customization services and opening more stores, the company in September launched a brand campaign called Uncontained to help support its expansion into dining, entertaining, home decor, textiles and on-the-go products. The company plans to introduce more than 1,000 new products across those categories by the end of its fiscal year in March.
