GROWTH SPURT; INTERNET IS A PROMISING ARENA FOR THE RIGHT START.Byline: Jason Z. Cohen cohen or kohen (Hebrew: “priest”) Jewish priest descended from Zadok (a descendant of Aaron), priest at the First Temple of Jerusalem. The biblical priesthood was hereditary and male. Staff Writer The Right Start launched a $6 million media campaign last week of print, television and radio ads urging customers to try the company's recently launched Web site, therightstart.com. But Jerry Welch Welch , William Henry 1850-1934. American pathologist and bacteriologist who discovered the bacteria that causes gas gangrene. , chief executive officer of the upscale baby-gift retailer, knows no ad campaign can beat the word-of-mouth that his Westlake Village-based company has generated. ``The mommy network is the best advertising you can have, because moms talk. Somewhere, somehow, we're getting orders from all over the country,'' said Welch, who preaches the wisdom of knowing your customer. He knows his. It's how he's survived in this business. ``They spend a lot of money on their kids, and they expect a lot of service,'' Welch said. Service is just what The Right Start is counting on to set it apart from other retailers as it begins offering its products online. In all, the company has pumped $45 million into the Internet Internet Publicly accessible computer network connecting many smaller networks from around the world. It grew out of a U.S. Defense Department program called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), established in 1969 with connections between computers at the site, which launched June 29 to sales of $1,631.04. Not exactly an Amazon-sized debut. But in just 90 days, the site hit $1 million in cumulative sales, and as of last week the company had generated $1.3 million in sales. The Internet is a promising arena for The Right Start, said Bryant Riley of the Los Angeles-based brokerage B. Riley and Associates. ``We're projecting that they'll do between $5 million and $10 million this holiday season. That's purely online,'' said Riley, who gives the stock a ``buy'' rating. Ten million dollars isn't much in the grand scheme of Internet sales. After all, consumers spent $3.1 billion online during the last two months of last year. Jupiter Communications - one of the leading Internet forecasters - is projecting a doubling of online holiday sales this year, to $6 billion. But analysts and company officials say that the combination of online and real-store sales - or, as Welch likes to say, ``click and mortar'' sales - is strong for a company the size of The Right Start. ``The retail stores are now profitable. The components there are pretty attractive,'' Riley said. The Right Start hasn't always been so attractive. The company didn't make a profit even last quarter, which Riley said was due to the company's heavy investment in getting the Web site started. Welch conceded con·cede v. con·ced·ed, con·ced·ing, con·cedes v.tr. 1. To acknowledge, often reluctantly, as being true, just, or proper; admit. See Synonyms at acknowledge. 2. The Right Start missed its mark in past years. Founded as a mail-order catalog catalog, descriptive list, on cards or in a book, of the contents of a library. Assurbanipal's library at Nineveh was cataloged on shelves of slate. The first known subject catalog was compiled by Callimachus at the Alexandrian Library in the 3d cent. B.C. in the early 1980s, The Right Start entered the retail store realm in 1990 with an outlet store An outlet store or factory outlet is a retail store in which manufacturers sell their stock directly to the public through their own branded stores. The stores can be can be brick and mortar or online. next to its Westlake Village warehouse. The company went public the next year, with controlling interest controlling interest The ownership of a quantity of outstanding corporate stock sufficient to control the actions of the firm. Controlling interest often involves ownership of significantly less than 51% of a firm's outstanding stock because many owners fail held by American Recreation Centers, primarily an operator of bowling alleys. The Right Start expanded to 10 stores by 1995, the year Kayne Anderson Investment Management bought controlling interest of the company and made Welch its CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. . While the company was still relatively new to retail, it opened stores in many of the nation's more upscale malls. It found, however, that sales at neighborhood stores were better on average than the high-overhead mall locations. A big part of the problem was that mothers were being asked to park in a crowded mall parking lot, schlep schlep or schlepp also shlep Slang v. schlepped also shlepped, schlep·ping or schlepp·ing also shlep·ping, schleps or schlepps also shleps v.tr. a small child through the mall, and carry their often-bulky purchase to the car themselves, Welch said. The company's employees now offer carry-out service to all customers, he said. While The Right Start still maintains 27 mall locations, it has stopped opening new mall outlets. But Welch hasn't abandoned the idea of opening new stores. He plans to add 10 new stores by the end of the year, bringing the total to 57. Welch said his goal is to open 30 to 40 new stores a year for the next few years, including a store in Sherman Oaks soon. Wall Street has reacted positively to the company's new growth plan. Shares of the company have risen from 87.5 cents a year ago to an all-time high of $10.125 recently. The company now has a market capitalization Market Capitalization A measure of a public company's size. Market capitalization is the total dollar value of all outstanding shares. It's calculated by multiplying the number of shares times the current market price. This term is often referred to as market cap. of $51.2 million. By comparison, the market capitalization for Zany Brainy brain·y adj. brain·i·er, brain·i·est Informal Intelligent; smart. brain  i·ly adv. , a
retailer that offers educational toys What is an educational toy?''' Toys, and educational toys, are typically built for and used by children. One could make the argument that an educational toy is actually any toy. Most children are constantly interacting with and learning about the world. for a slightly older market than The Right Start's, is valued by Wall Street at $186.9 million. Toys R Us, the granddaddy of toy retailers, has a market cap of $3.76 billion. Riley said it's a good time for The Right Start to enter a growth mode, as risky as that growth might be. ``It took them awhile a·while adv. For a short time. Usage Note: Awhile, an adverb, is never preceded by a preposition such as for, but the two-word form a while may be preceded by a preposition. to figure it out. They changed the box around,'' Riley said. ``This is a company that needed to get up to critical mass on the retail side. Once you get things going, get the model going, you can do them pretty quickly.'' With the World Wide Web's lack of space constraints CONSTRAINTS - A language for solving constraints using value inference. ["CONSTRAINTS: A Language for Expressing Almost-Hierarchical Descriptions", G.J. Sussman et al, Artif Intell 14(1):1-39 (Aug 1980)]. , therightstart.com is offering a wider selection of products than its brick counterparts. It also is trying to use the online outlet as a means of keeping those customers who otherwise would graduate to competitors. ``Over the years, we've handed kids off to Zainy Brainy or Noodle Kadoodle, and now we're not going to do that anymore,'' Welch said. New features on the site are targeted at the 3- to 6-year-old age group, such as Ask the Teacher, a service for parents to get development advice online from accredited accredited recognition by an appropriate authority that the performance of a particular institution has satisfied a prestated set of criteria. accredited herds cattle herds which have achieved a low level of reactors to, e.g. teachers. Welch thinks it will work. ``When you integrate your stores with your Internet business, it's a powerful combination,'' he said. CAPTION(S): 3 Photos Photo: (1--Color) Jerry Welch, CEO of The Right Start, surveys the Tarzana store. Welch credits the 47-location chain's growth to word-of-mouth. (2--3--Color) no caption (Baby products) Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer |
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