Sugared + Bronzed opens its 50th store, continuing its growth trajectory

Sugared + Bronzed is continuing its growth trajectory. The beauty services company just opened its 50th location in Hoboken, New Jersey, with more stores on the way. In the last year, Sugared + Bronzed opened 10 new stores in locations like San Diego and Washington, D.C., and hit $50 million in revenue, which was up 36% YoY, according to president and founder Courtney Claghorn.

She said New York and Southern California are key markets for the company, but that all markets are important for overall growth.

“Anytime we open a new location, it obviously ramps quite quickly because people are really anticipating our opening,” she said. “That being said, all of our markets are really important to us and we’re growing in all of them.”

Steady growth: Claghorn said the company’s retail growth strategy is to aim for signing one new lease a month—translating to 10 to 14 store openings a year—which has helped Sugared + Bronzed stay on its growth trajectory.

The other part of the strategy is looking at existing markets, like its key locations of New York and Southern California, and seeing where the company can open new stores because there’s still an appetite among customers for more locations.

“We try not to cannibalize too much,” she said. “We try to have at least—like in the SoCal area—at least three to five miles in between stores. In New York, obviously it’s quite a bit closer, especially in Manhattan. But, we take our client data and we look at where people are coming from.”

Sugared + Bronzed’s newly opened Hoboken location is an example of this infilling strategy. Claghorn said client data showed that Hoboken residents were coming into Manhattan locations, which showed an opportunity for the new location.

The company’s membership program has also contributed to growth, with Claghorn stating it increased 30% YoY and makes up over half of the company’s revenue. She said the membership program has evolved over the years to meet customers’ needs, which in turn encourages more sign-ups.

Next steps: After receiving strategic growth investment in 2019 from Main Post Partners and former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, Claghorn said the company is eyeing at bringing on new investors and expanding its current partnerships next year. She also said that its next retail expansion markets will be Chicago and Denver.