Red Wing works with Buxton to support expansion efforts and evaluation of existing stores.
"Over the last seven years we’ve grown our Red Wing store portfolio by 150 stores and every one of them has been a success." - Marisa Kinney | Director of Global Real Estate Development - Red Wing Shoe Company
My name is Marisa Kinney. I’m the director of global real estate development at Red Wing Shoe Company. Red Wing Shoe Company was founded in 1905 right here in Red Wing, Minnesota. We have grown into the world’s best manufacturer, wholesaler and retailer of product footwear. Today we are up over 515 stores here in North America. Over the last seven years we’ve grown our Red Wing store global real estate strategy is around the customer. We need to be customer-centric. Our customers want to interact with us and they want to procure product through us in different ways depending on markets. It all matters in terms of how that customer wants to interact with our Red Wing retail brand. Buxton has absolutely been our partner, our go-to. We consider their model really a piece of the puzzle. We refer to the two-by-two grid as we like to call it. It’s sort of part of our Red Wing nomenclature now. How can we analyze the stores in terms of how they are doing against the Buxton forecast? So, if the Buxton score is high and our actual revenue, or our actual sales are high, that’s a good thing, that’s a high-high. If there is a low Buxton forecast and a low revenue that we are producing in that store that’s something that we want to look at and understand. What is it? Why isn’t that market able to give us the revenue that we’re looking to achieve? In doing the optimization piece, we’re able to understand which stores should be relocated, which stores should be closed and then where can we add new stores to see the tide waters of that market grow even more. We are unlike any other retailer in that we are fully integrated. We’re vertical from the leather and the tannery, to the making the shoes in the factory, to wholesaling our product and then retailing our product, and that’s a very complex business but Buxton intimately understands that business. The solution that they provide will help you achieve your goals, your strategic goals, and help you on a path to success.