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Coldwater stock offering is successful

Coldwater Creek Inc. raised more than $41 million through a stock offering to finance the opening of new retail stores, company officials announced Friday.

The Sandpoint retailer of women’s clothing and accessories has opened 10 new stores this year, and plans to open 35 more before the Christmas season. By the end of 2004, the company will have 111 stores across the country.

Becky Kramer
Staff writer

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/business-news-story.asp?date=052204&ID=s1521825&cat=section.business

Coldwater Creek began as a catalog retailer, but started rolling out a line of retail stores in 2000. Thr
ough the expansion, the company hopes to capture a larger share of the $89 billion U.S. women’s apparel market

Women still like to try on clothes on before they buy them, said David Gunter, company spokesman. “A little better than 90 percent of all women’s clothing purchases occur in stores,” he noted.

Coldwater Creek’s target audience is affluent women, ages 30 to 60, with household incomes in excess of $75,000.

Coldwater Creek sold more than 2 million shares of common stock through the offering, at $20.50 per share.

In the past, the company financed store expansions from its operating cash, but 2004 is the most aggressive roll-out schedule to date, Gunter said. By the end of the year, Coldwater Creek’s store count will have increased by nearly 70 percent, he said. The company plans to open another 40 to 50 stores next year.

Within eight years, Coldwater Creek hopes to operate up to 500 stores, according to the company’s stock prospectus.

Each store costs about $560,000 to build, the prospectus said. Store sizes average 5,000- to 6,000-square feet, and the company expects an annual return of $500 in sales per square foot within three years, according to the prospectus.

Company founders Dennis and Ann Pence, and their charitable foundation, Aspenwood, also raised about $24 million though the sale of 1.2 million shares of stock. That money is not designated for corporate use, Gunter said.

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