NEW YORK — The Art of Shaving will join the likes of Origins, L’Occitane and Swatch when the men’s grooming brand opens a 393-square-foot store in Grand Central Terminal’s Lexington Avenue passage here in May.
The store will be the firm’s fourth location in New York, joining shops on Madison Avenue, in the Shops at Columbus Circle and on East 62nd Street.
“It was a no-brainer,” cofounder Eric Malka said of the company’s entry into the travel hub. “The sheer volume of foot traffic alone is incredible. As a New York brand, being in Grand Central is a great message.”
The new store is part of an ongoing retail expansion strategy for The Art of Shaving. “Retail is the driving force for growth,” said Malka, who projects that overall company sales volume will increase this year by 65 percent thanks to new store openings.
The firm generated about $15.8 million in net sales last year, according to market estimates and, based on the sales growth Malka is projecting, The Art of Shaving could reach the $26 million mark by yearend. It has 18 locations in the U.S. and plans to open 10 new locations this year. There are further plans to open 15 stores in 2008, according to Malka, followed by an additional 20 stores in 2009.
“We’re looking at 60 stores by the end of 2009,” said Malka. Stores generate sales-per-square-foot of about $1,500 in their first year, according to sources’ estimates.
When it comes to the firm’s global wholesale business, The Art of Shaving has 820 points of sale, 600 of which are in the U.S. at retailers like Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale’s, Saks Fifth Avenue and Barneys New York.
On the product front, The Art of Shaving has created its second eau de toilette, a fragrance simply called Lemon. In addition to lemon olfactory notes, the scent, a 100-ml. fragrance for $70, features accords of mandarin leaf, bergamot, petitgrain, cyclamen, white lily, jasmine, vetiver and oak moss. It is being rolled out this month to The Art of Shaving’s freestanding stores and will hit the firm’s wholesale network next month.
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Lemon follows the 2004 entry Sandalwood, and Malka says a third edt, called Lavender, could be launched within a year.
The new store in Grand Central Terminal and the Lemon edt could combine to garner sales of $1.5 million this year.