Chief Executive Officer & Director, Academy Spo Ou
Search every verified Steven Lawrence interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. In September 2023, Steve Lawrence, CEO of Academy Sports + Outdoors, discussed consumer spending trends and the company's growth plans. Lawrence stated that the company announced a new long-range plan in early April with three pillars: opening 120 to 130 new stores over five years, expanding its e-commerce business from 10% to 15% or higher penetration, and increasing productivity in existing stores. He expressed confidence in the company's plans and said the company is not focused on which competitors it takes market share from, citing its value proposition and operating model. Lawrence described a "bifurcation" in customer behavior in the first quarter of 2023, with customers gravitating toward value and toward newness, such as recently launched brands like Birkenstocks, Blackstone, and Yeti. He added that customers are not paying more for the same items, noting that supply chain pressures pushing prices up have not been accepted by consumers.
“We just announced back in early April a new long range plan that has three pillars to it: first new store growth opening 120 to 130 stores over the next five years, a lot of it is new markets. We think there's opportunity to expand the store base in new markets and states.”
“We think there's a lot of growth in our dot com business about 10% penetration; we think we can get to the 15% or higher and then increase our productivity in our existing store base so we're looking at that, making sure the existing stores we have are productive and profitable.”
“We're very confident in our plans to move forward.”
“I think it depends on who the competitive market set is. We're not as focused on who we take it from; we know the value proposition we offer, the strong operating model we have translates to new geographies. We just know the share we're going to pick up.”
Steve Lawrence, CEO of Academy Sports + Outdoors, joins 'The Exchange' to discuss cautious consumer spending trends, ...
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