Ross 2007 Annual Report Download - page 5

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3
Store Expansion at Ross and dd’s DISCOUNTS
We added 93 net new stores in 2007, for 12% unit growth. Net openings consisted of 67 Ross Dress for Less and
26 dd’s DISCOUNTS, and we ended the year with 890 locations in 27 states and Guam. This growth was partially
driven by the opportunistic real estate acquisition of approximately 40 former Albertsons sites in late 2006.
We doubled the size of the dd’s DISCOUNTS chain with 26 new stores in 2007. This accelerated growth included
our initial entry into three new states — Arizona, Florida and Texas — where we now operate a combined total
of 16 locations. While the 26 dd’s DISCOUNTS stores in California that were open as of the end of 2006 performed
in line with expectations in 2007, the new stores we opened during the year — in particular those in our new
states — underperformed our targets.
We currently are working to gain a better understanding of the dd’s DISCOUNTS customer, especially in our new
markets. In particular, we are looking at how the demographics we serve in the new states we recently entered
might differ somewhat from our California locations. We believe this knowledge will enable us to do a better job of
fine-tuning our assortments to more effectively address the merchandise wants and needs of our dd’s DISCOUNTS
customers, leading to improved performance across all of our stores.
Over the next year, we are targeting total unit expansion of about 8%, consisting of approximately 65 to 70 net new
Ross locations — all in existing states — and about five new dd’s DISCOUNTS stores in California.
Earnings Per Share
* Fiscal 2006 was a 53-week year; all other fiscal years presented were 52 weeks.
$1.90
$1.70
$1.36
$1.13
$1.47
2007
2006*
2005
2004
2003