Ulta Beauty sees room for more doors in more places.
The purveyor of salon, mass and prestige beauty products has upped its long-term target to 1,200 doors, compared to its initial goal of 1,000.
The beauty emporium continues to move full steam ahead with its hybrid approach to beauty and is reaping the rewards from the strategy. On Tuesday, Ulta reported that first-quarter income gained 49.7 percent on a sales increase of 22.8 percent. The retailer said it will continue to roll out Lancôme boutiques to 50 additional doors prior to the holiday selling season. The expansion will bring the total number of Lancôme boutiques at Ulta to about 79 doors, said Chuck Rubin, president and chief executive officer of Ulta.
“We also will be making additional investments in selected stores to improve our prestige offering and accommodate the future addition of other prestige brand boutiques,” said Rubin. “We believe both of these efforts will be exciting for our guests and reinforce Ulta’s positioning as the beauty authority.”
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For the 13 weeks ended April 28, net income increased to $34.9 million, or 54 cents a diluted share, from $23.3 million, or 37 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Sales grew to $474.1 million, up from $386 million, driven by store openings and double-digit same-store sales.
Comparable-store sales rose 10.1 percent, compared with an increase of 11.1 percent in the first quarter of last year.
During the quarter, Ulta opened 18 stores, to end the three-month period with 467 units — on its way toward its new goal of 1,200 doors.
For the second quarter, Ulta said it expects net sales in the range of $466 million to $473 million, which assumes a same-store sales increase of 6 to 8 percent.