US-based mid-price department store retailer J.C. Penney Company plans to launch a chain of up to 300 speciality stores aimed at ‘big and tall’ male customers.
The retailer, which operates 1,100 large, mid-price department stores, said the new chain of stores, ‘The Foundry Big & Tall Supply Company’, would be aimed at men who struggle to find suitable clothes in mainstream stores.
“With big and tall customers making up over 50 per cent of the male population and spending nearly $6 billion on apparel, footwear and accessories, we saw an opportunity to serve the fashionable and professional big and tall customer who is often frustrated by lack of sizes and fits, availability of brands and the overall lack of customer service in their category,” said Myron E (Mike) Ullman, III, chairman and chief executive officer, J.C. Penney Company.
“Offering an upscale environment and extensive assortments of apparel, footwear and furnishings created with them in mind, The Foundry Big & Tall Supply Company is positioned to address all of the needs of the big and tall customer – one of the largest and fastest growing segments in the market place today,” he added.
The company plans to open its first 10 stores next May, together with an e-commerce site.
The stores, of about 6,000 sq.ft, will sell both national brands and private label merchandise. The retailer said the stores would have an ‘urban, industrial design, in a hip, yet unpretentious environment that invites men to shop, relax and enjoy themselves’.
With the largest product development and sourcing organisation in the retail industry, J.C. Penney Company Inc continues to be the forerunner in retail merchandise innovation.
– IndiaRetailing Bureau
