J.C. Penney Company Inc. (JCP), in an attempt to drive sales, plans to open new locations in under-penetrated markets and renovate existing stores. These store openings are part of the company’s long-term plan of opening new locations through 2014 to support sales growth of $1 billion over the next five years.
A leading retailer of apparel, footwear, accessories, fashion jewelry, beauty products and home furnishings, J.C. Penney plans to open stores in San Francisco and Washington in the spring of 2011 and in Dallas in the fall of 2011.
As part of its $500 million capital expenditure activity for the year, J. C. Penney indicated that it is investing $160 million to enhance in-store customer shopping experience. The company notified that it has renovated more than 750 stores this year, which includes major renovations at 76 locations, and by 2014 it plans to completely overhaul more than 375 stores. Major store refurbishments are mainly in California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, New York and Texas.
J. C. Penney hinted that these 76 locations will include Sephora departments, bringing the count to 231 Sephora stores at the end of fiscal 2010. To augment sales further and drive traffic, J. C. Penney has been adding Liz Claiborne, MNG by Mango and Call it Spring brands to its portfolio.
The company in order to improve customer shopping experience has also been focusing on remodeling, renovating and refurbishing of stores as well as refreshing its website functionality due to continued migration to online shopping. We remain confident about J.C. Penney’s top-line growth driven by the launches of compelling new merchandise and the JCP Rewards program.
J. C. Penney, which competes with Macy’s Inc. (M) and Kohl’s Corporation (KSS), currently operates 1,107 department stores in the United States and Puerto Rico.
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