Company: Aeropostale, Inc. (Aeropostale)
Aeropostale is a leading casual clothing retailer with stores in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Canada. The company's two brands cater to a different demographic, with product lines focused on 14 to 17 year-olds in its Aeropostale stores, and 7 to 12 year-olds through its P.S. from Aeropostale stores. The company designs, sources, markets and sells all of its own merchandise.
In 2012, Aeropostale had 4,205 full-time employees, and 22,074 part-time employees, and generated revenues of approximately $ 2.4 billion.
Trade Names (# of locations)
Aeropostale (1,009) ; P.S. from Aeropostale (97)
Early Years and Growth
In 1987, the first Aeropostale store was opened in New York, New York by R.H. Macy & Co., Inc.
In 1998, Aeropostale’s was bought by a group put together by private equity firm Bear Stearns and members of the company's senior management team. The company had 119 stores at that time.
In 2002, Aeropostale went public, listing its stock on the New York Stock Exchange.
In 2005, Aeropostale debuted its first corporate website, www.aeropostale.com.
In 2007, Aeropostale opened its first Canadian store and its store count reached 828.
In 2008, Aeropostale opened first store in Puerto Rico and the company finished the year with 914 stores.
In 2009, Aeropostale launched its new children's concept, ‘P.S. from Aeropostale, and ended the year with 952 stores and went over $2 billion in sales.
In 2010, Aeropostale opened its Times Square, New York City location, which became its flagship store. That same year, the company opened its 1,000th store and its sales topped $2.4 billion.
In 2011, Aeropostale CEO Tom Johnson publicly announced that he felt the company's fashions were wrong for their core customers, and stated that the company would be revamping its product lines.
In 2012, Aeropostale opened its 100th P.S. from Aeropostale store.
In 2013, Aeropostale plans to grow the P.S. from Aeropostale store count to 160 and will close 15 to 20 Aeropostale stores.
Aeropostale has identified up to 85 locations for store closure over the next several years. This does not include the stores it is targeting for closure in 2013.
In April 2013, as Aeropostale's financial performance continued to lag, the company's former top merchandise executive, Christopher Finazzo, was convicted of defrauding Aeropostale by making back room deals with a company vendor. Prosecutors said Finazzo made $25 million from these deals, which he was ordered to repay.
Headquarters
Headquarter City: New York, New YorkTargeted Consumer
Aeropostale targets two different consumer groups with its brands. Aeropostale stores carry products made for 14 to 17 year-olds, and P.S. from Aeropostale stores target 7 to 12 year-olds.
Work Environment
Reviews on Glassdoor.com
Total Reviews: 262
Positive: 38.5%
Neutral: 29.4%
Negative: 32.1%
According to reviews, the company has several jobs that pay better than the industry average, including:
Store Manager: $55K
Assistant Store Manager: $40K
Sales Lead-Hourly: $14/Hour
In addition to competitive pay, Aeropostale offers its employees a 401(k) plan and a tuition reimbursement plan.
Aeroposate has implemented a variety of programs to improve its employees' work environment and it has been recognized for several of these. In 2011 and 2013, the company was named by Fortune magazine as one of the top 100 companies to work for.