The Kooples continues U.S. expansion

With several locations across the U.S., primarily in New York and California, and being in the nooks and crannies of department stores such as Bloomingdale’s, the Kooples is doing a pretty good job of making a name for itself in America. However, enough is never enough until everyone knows your name, and they are making sure they are on the right track to becoming as famous in the U.S. as they are in Paris. The French contemporary brand will be opening their fifth American boutique in Soho on Mercer Street come March 22nd, 2015.

This will be the brand’s second New York location, with their first being nestled in the Meatpacking District a few blocks away from Union Square. The brand slowly built their reputation in the U.S. thanks to Bloomingdale’s and are now looking to focus on more independent operations by expanding their boutique offerings targeting major cities first of course. In addition to the New York locations, The Kooples also has locations in San Francisco and Santa Monica.

The move to America seems to have only brought good news, because The Kooples Meatpacking district store is now the number three store in their company worldwide. New Yorkers do love their Parisian fashion if the multiple Parisian boutiques around from Chanel to Dior didn’t give that away. The brand is also finding success now that they have moved into other department stores such as Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue as well. It follows the age old motto “if you build it, they will come,” and the customers sure are coming.

The Kooples to open second New York location as part of expansion

The most impressive thing about The Kooples is that they manage to do all this without advertising. They focus their brand on selling a concept aimed at couples, and whatever they are doing it sure seems to be working. The brand reported that between the U.S. and Canada by the end of this fiscal year they will finish with an estimated 28 million dollars in sales between the two countries.

CEO Nicholas Dreyfus is currently targeting the U.S. as the location for The Kooples next 20 stand alone stores and 10 outlets. According to Dreyfus, The Kooples is doing even better in the U.S. than expected. “In the first half, we saw same-store sales growth in the U.S. of 9 percent, better than our objectives,” Dreyfus was quoted saying in Women’s Wear Daily. By September, the brand is also expected to launch e-commerce in the U.S. and Canada as well. The brand is also expected to open 3 more stores in Canada by 2016, in addition to stores in Miami, Chicago, and Hawaii.

Projected sales for this year are 243.1 million dollars, with predicted earnings of 42 million dollars which will be used to finance the company’s U.S. expansion. For 2019/2020 the company has put itself on the perfect track for U.S. expansion, Dreyfus is expecting revenue to come in at an impressive 607.8 million dollars, talk about going from a chic Parisian brand to an over half a billion dollar enterprise.

The Kooples currently operates 150 wholly owned stores worldwide, and has a total of 360 sale points. In addition to the U.S., The Kooples is also looking at expanding in the Middle East and Asia as they already have stores in the UAE and South Korea and are looking at opening a location in Hong Kong. As the brand leaves no stone unturned in their quest for global expansion they are being welcome with open arms in every market as their sales numbers have proven. It’s just a matter of where they will pop up next.