Express (clothing retailer)

Express, Inc.

Type	Public (NYSE: EXPR)
Industry	Retail
Founded	1980
Headquarters	Columbus, Ohio
Number of locations	591 (April 2011)
Key people	Michael Weiss, CEO
Website	Express

EXPRESS is an American fashion retailer headquartered in Columbus, Ohio and New York, New York. Express operates over 550 stores in the United States and generates $1.8 billion in annual sales.

History

Limited Brands, in 1980, opened the first Express store, as women's clothier "Limited Express" in Chicago's Water Tower Place. Current CEO Michael Weiss joined the brand in 1981 when the test expanded to include eight stores. By 1986, Express had 250 stores strong and began testing the sale of men’s merchandise in 16 stores the following year. The men’s fashion line was spun off into its own brand, Structure, in 1989.

In 2001, Express became a dual gender brand with the reintegration of its Structure stores as "Express Men". Dual gender Express stores began opening the following year.

Express as a privately-held company

On May 15, 2007, Limited Brands announced its intent to sell a 67% stake in Express to an affiliate of a private equity firm called Golden Gate Capital Partners, based in San Francisco. When the sale was finalized in July 2007, Golden Gate's stake in the company was 75% instead of the announced 67%.

In 2010, it announced plans for a $200 million IPO. In April, the company set terms for its IPO, hoping to raise over $300 million giving it a market cap of $1.7 billion.

On May 13, 2010 the company sold 16 million shares for $17 each, raising about $272 million. Shares had been planned to sell between $18 and $20 each. On May 14, 2010 the shares opened at $17 to $16.50 before recovering slightly to close down 1.5% at $16.75 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Styles

Although primarily associated with women's clothes, Express is a dual-gender brand.

In 2006, Express introduced the King of Prides collection for men, which includes denim, t-shirts, and hooded sweaters.

In 2005, Express introduced a denim line, with a stitching on the back pockets called DPD.

In April 2008, Express released a limited women's collection designed by Celia Birtwell. More recently, in early 2009, replacing the discontinued DPD jeans; Express introduced its newest denim line, Rerocks, in both women and in men. Just like the DPD jeans, Rerocks also have stitching on the back pockets and the materials are different.

In 2009, Express denim line was expanded with its extra low rise Zelda jeans as well as introducing two new styles. One is a women's denim, barely bootcut in either the low rise Zelda or the regular rise Stella. The other is the men's denim, Zach which is a extra slim fit.

Express jeans come in different washes from darkest to lightest and fits from loose to tight.

For women's denim: Eva styles: curvy fit with a mid rise, Zelda styles: slim fit with an ultra low rise, Stella styles: regular fit with low rise jeans

For men's denim: Blake styles: loose fit Kingston styles: classic fit, tighter fitting than the Blake and looser than the Rocco or Zach, Rocco styles: slim fit Zach styles: extra slim fit

Express clothes are designed at the Express Design Studio on 111 Fifth Avenue New York, New York in Manhattan's Flatiron District.

External links

• Official site