Urban Outfitters, Inc. | Urban Outfitters Goes Public in 1993
Urban Outfitters Goes Public in 1993
During 1993, Hayne opened two more Urban Outfitters stores, in San Francisco and Costa Mesa. Comparable store sales increased by 18 percent and total sales exceeded $500 per selling square foot for the first time. The wholesale division opened a large sales office in New York. Prices at Urban Outfitters stores during 1993 ranged from 75 cents for greeting cards to $450 for a World War I-style leather bomber jacket. At the Anthropologie store, prices ranged from $1.00 for a greeting card to $1,500 for an antique Mexican cabinet. The company implemented its "Shared Fate" program for employees and initiated a company-wide profit-sharing plan. Total sales for the year grew at 43 percent. In November, Urban Outfitters went public at $18 a share, raising over $13 million in capital through the initial public offering.
Hayne used the capital to continue his strategic plan of growth by adding new stores on the retail side of the business and attracting new customers to the wholesale division while increasing sales to existing ones. In 1994, he opened three new Urban Outfitters stores, two in Chicago and one in Pasadena, and indicated that he planned to open three or four new stores each year for next three years, some of which were planned to be located outside the United States, either in Canada, Europe, or both. Based on the success of the Wayne, Pennsylvania, store, two more Anthropologie stores were opened in 1994, in Westport, Connecticut, and Rockville, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C. In the company's annual report that year, Hayne indicated he hoped to open three to four additional Anthropologie stores each year and that the company would invest heavily in expanding the Anthropologie division. Overall company sales grew by 30 percent from 1993. Recognizing that high rates of growth would be difficult to maintain, the company set a goal of 20 percent annual growth.
In 1995, an Urban Outfitters store opened in Portland, Oregon, and lease signings were announced in Austin, Texas, and Tempe, Arizona, moving the company into the Southwest. With steadily increasing sales during this time, the company gained a ranking as number 76 on the Business Week list of hot growth companies. As it neared the end of the 20th century, the Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie chains appeared to be going strong, and, after a quarter century, Hayne and his staff were still successfully anticipating and responding to shifts in fashion trends and the changing tastes of their customers.