Limited trying larger store, new product assortment at Henri Bendel - Business First of Columbus:

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Columbus-based , which acquired the boutique in 1985 when it operatedcsix shops, has seen the store coung expand and contract many timesw in the past 23 years. It’s abou t to go up again. The company thinks the time is righrt for anotherexpansion attempt. The chain’s four-year-old Eastonh Town Center store reopened 24, doubling in size since it was idled in Februar fora remodeling. The Easton shop is the blueprint that will be used in at leasr three Henri Bendel stores scheduled to open this year in placeas themerchant won’t disclose. Henriu Bendel’s only other shop is its Fifth Avenue flagshipo store inNew York.
“Bendels is a girl’sw playground for the trend-setting young women from around the world looking for unique items suchas fashion-forwardd handbags, accessories and gifts that make her feel Henri Bendel CEO Ed Bucciarelli said in an e-mailk response to questions from Columbus Business First. Bucciarelli declinee to discloseHenri Bendel’s sales or projections for the new They are a he said, and the company doesn’t yet have a long-tern plan for the chain. Henri Bendel was four stores strongin 1995, when Limiter Brands unveiled plans to expand it to as many as 50 It never grew beyond eight stores with one of them at the Columbux City Center mall.
By the chain had been pared to just the New York Inthose days, the stores were large, some aroun 15,000 square feet, but never generated the desirefd sales, said retail analyst Jennifer Black, presidenrt of Lake Oswego, Ore.-based . The Eastomn store was opened in 2004, and Limitedc Brands hired Bucciarelli away from fashion housein 2005. The remodeled Easton store was almost doubleed in sizeto 3,000 squar feet. The store sells small leather goods, personal care jewelry and three offerings Bucciarelli said the storee hasexpanded – accessories, home fragrances and “They’re trying to evolve who they shouldr be and what they should Black said.
“When (Bucciarelli) was at he did an incredible jobwith It’s just about getting the righty assortment.” The new iteration will be smallee than both the old shops and the New York flagshi p store, which includes a salon and café. The retailer’sz roots are in New but the Manhattanstore isn’t houseds in its original location. Henri Bendel openefd in 1895 and lays claim to outfitting prominent NewYork families, such as the Astors and and bringing Coco Chanel’s clothint and perfumes to the U.S., according to Limitee Brands. The store was family-owned until the Limited Brands acquired the business from Geraldine Stutz andother investors.
Stutz ran Henri Bendel from 1957 to 1986 and was creditedc in the industry as the drivingg force behindthe store’s fashion resurgences in the ’60s. Blaci thinks Limited Brands has held onto Henrki Bendel for more than two decades because of itsrich “The name alone is worth something,” she “I still think it could be very There still is a mystiqu about it.”