The company currently has 667 stores in 33 states, with Bealls,Palais Royal and Stage throughout the South and Peebles throughoutthe Midwest, Southeast, and East. The stores, typically about18,000 sf, carry name brand clothes, shoes and accessories, but areusually located in small towns of 8,000 to 10,000 people, andreaching a shopping audience of about 50,000.

The company emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 2001,with about 342 stores. Since then, Jim Scarborough, chairman andCEO, says the company is moving forward, growing its sales from$875 million in 2002 to $1.6 billion expected this year. Thesecret, he says, is to know the customer, which in this case ninetimes out of 10 is female. Also, since the stores are in such asmall town, there's little competition, especially from bigdepartment stores trying to scale back into just larger markets."Clearly, we understand how to operate in small markets, that'swhat makes this all work," he said in his presentation.

Andy Hall, president and chief operating officer, said in thepresentation that the company hopes to ramp up to 70 stores peryear in 2008. He said the acquisition of B.C. Moore & Sons Inc.in 2003, and the subsequent transformation of the 69 stores intothe Peebles brand, showed that the company could handle such growtheach year. "We've identified a third distribution center that'sgoing to come online in mid-2008," Hall said during thepresentation. "We have a distribution capacity right now for 860stores, and a third center will take us up to 1,160 stores."