Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va., Biz Buzz column

Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.迷你倉Aug. 26--Pleasants Hardware expects to open its newest store the day after Labor Day in Midlothian Station Shopping Center at Coalfield Road and Midlothian Turnpike in Chesterfield County.The store is the company's eighth retail location, all in the Richmond area.Company President James T. Hatcher III said the 10,000-square-foot store continues Pleasants' expansion model, drawing on a lesson learned when it opened, then closed, a store in Short Pump in the early 1990s."That was our first retail branch, and we felt we needed to duplicate our midtown store -- lots of products, a very full support staff," he said."We found out we can't really duplicate that store. The market has changed."Instead of a 100,000-square-foot facility, he said, with nearly 80 percent of it devoted to product storage -- like the one at 2024 W. Broad St. -- the company began opening 10,000-square-foot stores, with nearly all the space a retail showroom.The inventory is concentrated on items in high demand, he said, with adjustments to fit "what people ask for in the community."He said Pleasants' expansion pace won't get much quicker than a store every three or four years."We don't feel a great urgency," he said. "For one thing, we're limited by human capital. ... When we open a store and move people to that store, it takes a couple of years to rebuild our internal staff."He said the new store will have about 12 employees, half of them full time.With roots that reach back to 1908, the company was owned by the Pleasants family starting in 1915. Hatcher's grandfather became a partner and bought the company in 1952.Hatcher has been with the company since 1984. In January 1989, the Hatcher family sold Pleasants Hardware to the C.F. Sauer Co., a locally owned family business that was founded in 1887.Sauer is an ideal company owner, Hatcher said."It's another family-owned company," he said. "They seem to like the way we've done things. We let them know when we start thinking about opening a new store or anything major."Pop-up power?Ledbury CEO Paul Trible III said he expects his high-end men's shirt company to sell about 40,000 shirts in 2013, more than double what the company did last year.Now he and Chief Operating Officer Paul Watson are looking for ways to sell more.The company is primarily an online retailer. At .ledbury.com, you'll find a line of shirts from $115 to $165 and a few high-end accessories.Ledbury has a small retail showroom at its Shockoe Slip headquarte自存倉s at 117 S. 14th St. It also has staged a handful of pop-up retail locations -- lasting a few days at sites across the country.Now the company is expanding its pop-up approach.Starting Friday, Ledbury will have a shop at Stony Point Fashion Park for 30 days. The store will be across from Gymboree, near the pop-jet fountain.Then the company is going to the Washington market -- preferably Georgetown -- to run a six-week pop-up leading up to the Christmas holidays.Trible said the longer-span pop-ups will give the company a context to take a hard look at opening permanent stores.But why, when many retailers are shrinking their bricks-and-mortar presence and bolstering their online marketing, would Ledbury steer the other way?"We find that when people get our shirts in their hands," Trible said, "they become customers. After that one experience, they're likely to shop online."So the shops, he said, wouldn't necessarily have to have high profit margins."We can treat them as an advertising cost," Trible said. "A way to get customers to know about our shirts."Relay goes mobileRelay Foods, the Charlottesville-based online grocery service that serves the Richmond area, now has a dedicated mobile-device platform.The new platform, designed for optimized mobile browsing, uses elements of the company's existing Web platform, such as product sourcing data and producer profiles, while highlighting functions such as featured product lists.The company says the platform is available on iPhone 4 and above and Android 4.x and soon will be available for Android 2.x users.Restaurant hat trickThe Shops at Willow Lawn will soon have three new restaurants.Construction on Travinia Italian Kitchen & Wine Bar and Zo褭 Kitchen is expected to begin before the summer is over, and the restaurants are set to open next spring. American Tap Room plans to open in October.Willow Lawn will be the first location in the Richmond market for each of the chains.Travinia will have 7,100 square feet and serve contemporary American-Italian cuisine influenced by the food and wine in California's Napa Valley.Zo褭' 3,432-square-foot fast-casual restaurant will serve Mediterranean-inspired dishes.The 6,500-square-foot American Tap Room will serve local craft beers and fresh produce, meats and seafood.rhallman@timesdispatch.com(804) 649-6844Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, Va.) Visit the Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, Va.) at .timesdispatch.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉新蒲崗