take advantage of vacancies in high profile shopping locations. They required minimal investment and had short or flexible lease terms facilitating our ability to test Soma’s potential for success in a particular location. The results of the pop-up store strategy were generally successful as many of these locations have been or we anticipate will be converted to permanent locations. With the experience gained through the “pop-up” strategy, Soma is transitioning into longer-term lease arrangements and, as such, we do not anticipate continuing the use of “pop-up” stores as a real estate strategy for the Soma brand. While Boston Proper does not currently operate any stores, we plan to test stores for this brand in fiscal 2013. Our outlet stores are located in quality outlet centers. The Chico’s and WH|BM brand outlets contain a mixture of made-for-outlet and clearance merchandise. The made-for-outlet product carries a higher margin than the clearance items from our boutique stores. Soma outlets contain a mix of boutique and clearance merchandise. We also sell clearance merchandise on our websites. We regularly review the appropriate ratio of made-for-outlet and clearance merchandise for our outlets and will adjust that ratio as appropriate. In fiscal 2013, we currently expect to open approximately 140-145 new stores and close approximately 6 stores. We expect approximately 31 net openings of Chico’s stores, 59 net openings of WH|BM stores, including testing 3 stores in Canada, 45 net openings of Soma stores, and testing 4 new Boston Proper stores. As of February 2, 2013, we operated 1,357 retail stores in 48 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The following tables set forth information concerning our retail stores during the past five fiscal years:
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Fiscal Year2 2010
2012
2011
Stores Stores at beginning of year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Opened . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Closed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1,256 125 (24)
1,151 137 (32)
Total Stores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1,357
1,256
2012
2011
2009
2008
1,080 79 (8)
1,076 40 (36)
1,038 62 (24)
1,151
1,080
1,076
Fiscal Year End 2010 2009
2008
Stores by Brand Chico’s boutique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chico’s outlet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
606 99
601 83
597 63
599 44
619 41
Chico’s total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
705
684
660
643
660
WH|BM boutique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . WH|BM outlet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
398 45
364 27
342 21
333 17
328 17
WH|BM total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
443
391
363
350
345
Soma Intimates boutique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Soma Intimates outlet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
193 16
164 17
120 8
83 4
70 1
Soma Intimates total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
209
181
128
87
71
Total Stores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1,357
1,256
1,151
1,080
1,076
Our fiscal years end on the Saturday closest to January 31 and are designated by the calendar year in which the fiscal year commences. The periods presented in these financial statements are the fiscal years ended February 2, 2013 (“fiscal 2012”, “2012”, or “current period”), January 28, 2012 (“fiscal 2011”, “2011”, or “prior period”), January 29, 2011 (“fiscal 2010”, or “2010”), January 30, 2010 (“fiscal 2009”, or “2009”), and January 31, 2009 (“fiscal 2008”, or “2008”). Each of these periods had 52 weeks, except for fiscal 2012, which consisted of 53 weeks. 5