Vineyard Vines is set to open its eighth store in California as the company continues its West Coast push.
The business, founded by brothers Shep and Ian Murray and rooted in whimsical neckties, will open a 2,893-square-foot store at Westfield Century City Friday.
The company operates more than 100 of its own stores and also has a wholesale business where its brand for men, women and kids is in more than 600 doors globally.
The newest store at Westfield Century City, a shopping center undergoing a major redo that includes about $1 billion worth of investment, will include a number of giftable items bearing “Los Angeles.”
“Sometimes people want to have a really accessible piece of the brand where they don’t have to worry about sizing, so a lot of our custom product ends up being grab-and-go items like hats, beach towels, koozies or even hostess gifts,” said Ian.
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The Century City store is located near Joie, Kate Spade, Johnny Was, Current/Elliott, Equipment and Zadig et Voltaire.
The company opened its first store in California in Newport Beach about five years ago, and has since filled out the Bay Area. The most recent opening was a door in Carmel-by-the-Sea.
“We’re excited to be in L.A.,” Shep said. “We’ve done well in Fashion Island. We’ve done well in the Bay Area and we look to continue our expansion on the West Coast.”
The privately held firm, which celebrates 20 years in business in July, doesn’t disclose revenue. Shep confirmed the business is projecting sales growth and has seen increases every year since the company’s founding.
“We’ve got a lot of positive momentum on the West Coast and this is an opportunity to let people in the L.A. area have access to the brand,” said Ian, adding the company is opening stores at a rate of about 10 to 12 a year.
“I think at the end of the day, when we see a great opportunity, we jump at that opportunity,” Shep said of future stores. “We always want to be better and not bigger. There are times when we make investments in real estate and growing retail and we’ve always done it when we felt it was the right opportunity.”
The executive went on to say the company isn’t opening doors for the sake of marketing, a strategy many brands have adopted for bricks-and-mortar. Instead, he stressed Vineyard Vines opens stores to make money. It’s strategic about picking corner locations where possible in an aim to be part of the community, Ian added, citing clean bathrooms, coloring books for the kids or football games playing on the TVs so that families can split up to shop but meet back up at Vineyard Vines.
“We think that bricks-and-mortar is a really important part of having a brand for customers. To us, it’s less about where they buy it and more about accessibility,” Ian said. “So we want to make sure that our customers have the opportunity to get the full retail experience and if they choose to shop online, they choose to shop with a wholesale partner or they choose to shop right there in the store, it doesn’t make a difference to us.”
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