Duluth Trading Company, a retailer founded in Minnesota and known for irreverent ads featuring "Fire Hose Pants" and "No Yank Tanks," is expanding across the country at a time when many apparel retailers are shuttering stores.
"We're looking for a coast-to-coast presence from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Ore.," said Stephanie Pugliese, chief executive at Duluth Trading. "We've earmarked to get to 100 stores in five years."
To borrow Duluth Trading's cheeky vernacular, that sounds like no bull.
Its store count currently stands at 34. The company opened 15 stores last year, including in Woodbury and Red Wing, and it plans to open 15 more annually for the next five years.
On deck in 2018: stores in Alaska, North Dakota, Oregon, Oklahoma, Texas, Ohio, Maine and Colorado.
At that growth rate, it is on target to overtake L.L. Bean, which has nearly 50 U.S. stores, next year. Amid slowing sales growth, L.L. Bean plans to add four U.S. stores this year. It recently tightened its long-standing lifetime guarantee to one-year returns. Duluth Trading, meanwhile, is sticking to its unconditional no-bull guarantee.
Duluth Trading's formula is as no-nonsense as its workwear apparel. Pugliese said each new store must pass the test of high visibility, plenty of parking and easy roadway access. Even more important, the metro location must be in an area with brand recognition.
"Our first path to looking for new stores is where our catalog and online customers are located," she said. "We go where we're already well-known."