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IN THE MARKET Sportsman's Warehouse Pulling Back on Expansion Inside the Q1 Numbers at Hibbett Sports JD Sports and the Finish Line Remake Foot Locker's Power Play A fter recently opening a new location in Lansing, MI, Sportsman's Warehouse is pulling back its brick-and-mortar expansion plans to add just three standard format stores in 2019 as it focuses on paying down debt and expanding its ecommerce capabilities. In addition to Lansing, locations will open in Murfreesboro, TN and Fort Wayne, IN, as well this this summer. In Q1, Sportsman's Warehouse reported that Buy Online, Pick Up In Store (BOPIS) orders rose 75 percent year-over-year. In Q1, comparable store sales fell 5.7 percent as overall revenues dipped 3.4 percent to $174 million. Firearm units declined 8.1 percent. Weather had a negative impact on fishing and camping, which each declined 2.5 percent. Apparel sales rose 3.5 percent; footwear was up 10.3 percent. Loyalty club members, totaling more than 1.9 million, accounted for nearly 52 percent of Q1 revenues. n T otal sales rose 25 percent to $343.3 million in Q1, Hibbett Sports reported. Ecommerce accounted for 8.3 percent of revenues or an implied $28.5 million. Approximately 20 percent of BOPIS transactions resulted in an additional in-store purchase. Footwear comps rose high-single digits, a seventh consecutive quarterly improvement led by a double-digit gain in men's. Besides Nike and Adidas franchises, Hibbett saw significant growth from New Balance, Brooks and Champion. By category, Hibbett generated strong results in soball, volleyball and track but saw soness in football, baseball bats and inflatables. In Q1, the retailer closed 25 of the 95 doors it has indicated it plans to close this year. Chief merchant Jared Briskin told the Street that the chain is trying to shi away from fashion versus performance merchandising to focus more "on what's trending and what's relevant" for today's consumers. n A Q1 comparable store sales increase of 4.6 percent for Foot Locker met the chain's expectations, senior execs reported. North American sales were paced by a low double-digit gain at Champs Sports, mid-single digit increases at Foot Locker U.S. and Canada and low-single digit gain at Eastbay. Footwear posted a mid-single digit comp; apparel was up low-single digits. Men's Classics rose double-digits and men's running was up high-single digits. Foot Locker said overall footwear drivers were broad-based with gains from Nike, Puma, Adidas, Fila, Vans and some Jordan offerings. With its newest "Power Store" opening in Philadelphia, Foot Locker now has three "Power Stores" open in North America with a dozen more planned globally this year, including New York and Los Angeles. New point-of-sale soware has been implemented in all U.S. stores and approximately 40 percent of international locations to date. CEO Dick Johnson told analysts the retailer "feels good" about the second half of the year based on product flow, despite tough comparisons. n U K-based JD Sports Fashion, which acquired Finish Line for $558 million last June, closed 23 of the Finish Line banner's poorest-performing stores and 26 of its underperforming spaces inside Macy's to end its fiscal year with 529 Finish Line doors and 349 shops in Macy's stores. Five Finish Line stores — Chicago, Houston, Columbus, Washington, D.C. and Indianapolis — were changed to the JD banner with a sixth coming on board at the Mall of America soon. For the 12 months ended Feb. 2, 2019, Finish Line generated the equivalent of $1.2 billion in sales. n 8 • Sports Insight May/June 2019 sportsinsightmag.com