To lure teenage mall rats, you need the right cheese

摘要

Teens may say they want to be trendsetters, but most are fashion followers. It's a simple insight, but understanding it has been the key to one of the hottest recent success stories in retailing: Aeropostale Inc. The New York-based apparel chain of 494 mall stores is the top retailer on our Hot Growth list, at No. 5. Its earnings over the past three years have jumped an average annual 88%., to $54.3 million, on average yearly sales growth of 54%, to $734.9 million. The company has a market cap of $1.3 billion. That's a big change from a few years ago. In 1996, as a division that retail giant Federated Department Stores Inc. had gotten as part of its Macy's acquisition, Aeropostale was a lackluster performer with just 100 shops. That's when Julian R. Geiger, a former Macy's executive, was brought in to try to turn things around. Two years later his management team, with an investment bank putting up most of the cash, acquired the chain from Federated for about $14 million.