Dive Brief:
- Five Below is expanding its footprint to the Pacific Northwest region of the U.S. with eight new stores this November, per a Friday press release.
- Each of the new locations across Washington and Oregon will host a grand opening event on Nov. 8 featuring free giveaways, exclusive deals and more. The first 100 customers at each store during the event will receive a $10 gift card.
- The Pacific Northwest stores will be in malls as well as neighborhood shopping centers, some of which appear to be in former Party City locations, according to MapQuest and Google Maps search results. Five Below was a top bidder on Party City’s store leases earlier this year after the event and celebrations retailer filed for bankruptcy.
Dive Insight:
Five Below is furthering its store expansion plans by entering a whole new region.
The discount retailer opened 32 net new stores in Q2 compared to 62 new stores in the second quarter last year, Chief Operating Officer Kenneth Bull said on a call with analysts in August.
In that most recent quarter, net sales grew more than 23% year over year to more than $1 billion and comps increased over 12%. Additionally, the company expects net sales for the full fiscal 2025 year to be in a range of $4.44 billion to $4.52 billion based on opening about 150 net new stores.
This all comes under the leadership of CEO Winnie Park, who took on the top spot in December. Under Park, Five Below has switched up its C-suite, naming a new chief merchandising officer and chief financial officer in October just a few months after tapping a new chief marketing officer.
Park had hinted at the Pacific Northwest expansion on the company’s second quarter call.
“In terms of new stores, we've been really pleased with the openings this year,” the CEO told analysts. “And we certainly have a lot of white space. We believe there's still more white space in the market, especially as we enter new markets later this year like the Pacific Northwest.”
