Company Snapshot: Brookstone Inc.

Address:
One Innovation Way
Merrimack, NH 03054

Telephone:
603 880-9500

Fax:
603-577-8004

Internet Homepage:
http://www.brookstone.com

Year Founded:
1965

Total Stores:
282

Total Annual Sales:
$496,766,000

Senior Executives:
Stephen Bebis
President and Chief Executive Officer
Thomas F. Moynihan
Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
James M. Speltz
Vice President, Chief Operating Officer

Brookstone Inc. started out in 1965 not as a brick and mortar retailer but as an upstart offering ‘hard to find tools’ through classified ads in Popular Mechanics magazine. Later the company offered varied expanded selections of its increasingly distinct product offerings through its first catalog. This was initially published in black and white and offered in a twenty four page volume.

After more than a decade of carefully planned, successive store count expansions, the company has slightly reduced its volume stores going from an early recession count of 314 to the current 282 over a four year period. While the recession has seen progressive drops in sales, sales as of December 2011 roses to just over the mark reflecting Brookstone’s fiscal 2008, which saw sales drop from an all-time high of $562,835,000 for fiscal 2007. Not a bad record considering the severity of the recession on upscale retailers.