US retailer, Party City is planning to open between 80 and 100 Halloween City pop-up shops in 2021, compared to the 25 opened in 2020.
President and ceo, Brad Weston told analysts, during the Q2 earnings call last week: “Most importantly, we are ready for the important Halloween season, including new innovation and quality improvements in this important category.
“We currently expect a substantial increase in Halloween City stores relative to last year with current expectations of between 80 and 100 stores, leveraging the insights from last year.”
The retailer also outlined plans to increase its next-gen stores, which feature a dedicated checkout for balloons, updated merchandising, new signage, lower shelf heights and de-cluttered stores.
In Q2, Party City opened and re-modeled 16 of the new stores, bringing its total to 57. Brad continued: “We plan to have 41 additional next-gen stores by the end of 2021, including 23 new store openings in Q3, bringing our expected year in total to 98. We are pleased with the results our next-gen stores are producing. As we continue to innovate and refine the prototype. In fact, our remodeled stores are averaging a sales percentage increase of mid-single digits compared to their control stores.
“Our current performance capital spend is approximately $250,000 for a remodeled store, and it is only $150,000 after tenant improvement allowances. In addition, the more curated assortment, lower shelf heights, and more shopping formats allow us to carry roughly $100,000 less in inventory while still generating the higher sales. Even when assumptions vary from the norm, we generally get a payback period for each store of less than three years. Based on the continued strength we see in our next-gen store performance lift, we remain committed to an aggressive rollout plan in 2022 and beyond.”
