GADZOOKS: STRONG HOLIDAY SALES BOOST PLANS FOR STORE OPENINGS
DALLAS — Gadzooks Inc. said it’s been spurred by strong holiday sales and plans to file for a secondary stock offering to raise funds to open 45 to 50 stores this year.
The junior specialty retailer, based here, reported a 15 percent same-store sales gain for the November-December period. Total sales leaped 55 percent to $25.2 million from $16.2 million a year ago.
“Our stores as a whole performed extremely well during what was obviously a difficult Christmas retailing environment for many other retailers,” said Jerry Szczepanski, chairman and chief executive officer, in a statement. “We achieved that level even though we were comparing against a comparable-store sales gain of approximately 29 percent for the 1994 Christmas selling season.”
The company intends to file a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a secondary offering of 1 million to 1.2 million shares. About 400,000 of the shares will be sold by Gadzooks, with the remaining 600,000 to 800,000 shares offered by shareholders. There are 5.6 million shares outstanding.
“This enables us to take advantage of the current availability of some excellent retailing sites as other chains continue to close some prime locations,” Szczepanski said.
Gadzooks made an initial public offering last October at $14 a share that raised $18.5 million.
The company operates 126 stores averaging 2,200 square feet in 21 states in the Southwest, Midwest and Southeast. The new stores will be mostly in the same markets.
Gadzooks sells branded apparel and accessories for juniors and young men. Top selling lines include CK Calvin Klein, Jalate, Red Sand, XOXO, JouJou, Mossimo and No Fear.