![]() ![]() “Sorry, one of my merchants needs me,” he says, seating himself at a patio-furniture set. Talk about success will have to wait, though, because right now Butler needs to take a call about flooring. “A lot of the incoming calls this year have been, ‘How did I miss Ollie’s?’ ” says Judah Frommer, an analyst at Credit Suisse. No one has benefited more from the run-up in Ollie’s stock than Butler himself, who has an estimated $1 billion fortune, nearly all from his approximate 15% stake in the company. Ollie’s shares now trade at 34 times earnings. This handily beats the performance from the rest of retail (the SPDR S&P Retail ETF has actually lost 12%), the broader stock market (the S&P 500 has gained 34%) and even high-flying Amazon (up nearly 290%). Even after a recent sell-off, shares in Ollie’s have quintupled since its IPO in 2015. Not only is it opening new locations, its stock is on a tear. Shoppers peruse the book section at Ollie's in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Those numbers will skyrocket in 2019: Retailers announced 4,300 store closures in just the first nine weeks of the year. Meanwhile, companies announced 3,400 store closures last year, with plans to shutter a record 155 million square feet of shops. The internet now accounts for 10% of American shopping-up from below 4% less than a decade ago-and e-commerce topped $130 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018, a 12% increase from a year ago. Most other retailers seem headed in the other direction. Profits are at a high, nearly $130 million. It moves more than $1 billion a year of low-priced goods from its large (30,000 square feet or so), no-frills stores like the one in Sterling. Nonetheless, Ollie’s sales have doubled in four years. Butler focuses exclusively on traditional retailing, selling not a thing online. Llie’s is very possibly the only company in America whose brick-and-mortar stores are not just surviving but thriving. They should be in later that week, he’s told. The store should, however, have a full supply of Mangano-branded clothing hangers. No, the QVC queen (and titular entrepreneur of the 2015 film Joy, starring Jennifer Lawrence) is not supposed to be at Ollie’s. ![]()
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