BARNEYS BARRELING TOWARD $1 BILLION: LUXURY SPECIALTY STORE CHAIN PLOTS EXPANSION FOCUSING ON FLAGSHIP AND CO-OP STORE OPENINGS.(Interview)

Daily News Record, August, 2006 by Palmieri, Jean E.

Byline: JEAN E. PALMIERI

NEW YORK - For Howard Socol, being CEO of Barneys New York is indisputably the best job in retail.

Socol, who spent the bulk of his career in the department store industry, no longer has to worry about price promotions and markdowns. Instead, he can focus all his attention on providing innovative merchandise, cutting-edge marketing and superior store design for the New York-based luxury specialty store chain.

It's a strategy that is paying dividends. In the second quarter ended July 1, Barneys led its peers with a comp-store gain of nearly 9 percent and is setting its sights on expanding its successful formula throughout the U.S. as it moves toward becoming a $1 billion business.

"We're 65 percent...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Premium Content Partnership | HighBeam Research provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works.