NEW YORK — May Department Stores Co. will further differentiate its men’s grooming assortment via an exclusive branding deal with Anthony Logistics for Men.
The retailer has teamed with the fifth largest men’s department store treatment brand to introduce Anthony Sport for Men, a newly created collection under the four-year-old Anthony Logistics firm.
Some 400 May Co. stores are to begin carrying Anthony Sport in March. These include the following nameplates: Famous Barr, Filene’s, Foley’s, Hecht’s, Kaufmann’s, L.S. Ayres, Meier & Frank, Robinsons-May, Strawbridge’s and The Jones Store.
May’s distribution deal with Anthony Logistics won’t include the 54-store Lord & Taylor chain because the Anthony Logistics for Men line is already carried there.
Total Anthony Logistics revenues for 2004 were roughly $14 million, according to industry sources. The May-Anthony Sport deal, coupled with comparative store growth for Anthony, could help boost sales of the company by 30 percent to $18.2 million this year.
Discussing the May Co. deal, Anthony Sosnick, founder and president of Anthony Logistics for Men, said: “It allows us to grow our business and brand name in many more points of distribution without diluting either the core [Anthony Logistics] line or the new [Anthony Sport] line.
“Men’s is the fastest-growing skin care category,” he continued, “but men in the U.S. don’t want to be bombarded with too many choices.” Of the May deal, he added: “They loved the idea of an exclusive and something different and unique for them in the men’s category. The brands they’ll bring offer something new, fresh, that hasn’t been offered before.”
Anthony Logistics’ younger, sportier brother will consist of 18 items targeting consumers with an athletic, outdoorsy and active lifestyle, according to Sosnick. Formulations will reflect higher concentrations and different combinations of antioxidants than those found in the core Anthony Logistics for Men collection. Items range in price from $12 for a shampoo to $28 for a face lotion.
The Anthony Logistics line is carried in 1,000 U.S. doors. Sport will bring that number up to more than 1,400 doors. By next spring, the Anthony brand will have about 1,650 points of sale globally. There’s also a third Anthony line, called Solution Based, which has an antiaging and antiacne bent. Typically the brand is merchandised in department stores’ men’s fragrance, skin care and men’s furnishings areas.
Related Articles
While May Co. will be the only retailer carrying Sport domestically, Sosnick has eventual plans for U.K. distribution of the Sport line.