June 18, 2013
Zale Corporation (NYSE: ZLC) is a mid-tier retailer of fine jewelry, operating approximately 1,900 retail locations throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, as well as online. Zale Corporation's brands include Zales Jewelers, Zales Outlet, Gordon's Jewelers, Peoples Jewellers, Mappins Jewellers and Piercing Pagoda.
Zales has a tenuous market position because it lacks the scale of mass discount retailers like Wal-Mart, and its reputation as a mid-tier jewelry seller makes it difficult for it to compete for wealthier clients that frequent high end stores like Tiffany. The company's focus on middle income and young adult customers also makes it more vulnerable to economic downturns than its higher end competitors, because these two groups tend to reduce their spending more drastically than higher income customers.
(Read more at Wikinvest
) - Company Overview
- Business and Financial Metrics
- Business Segments
- Fine Jewelry (86% of 2009 revenues)[2]
- Kiosk Jewelry (13% of 2009 revenues)[2]
- All Other (1% of 2009 revenues)[2]
- Trends and Forces
- Zales is sandwiched between high end and discount retailers
- Fluctuations in the prices of diamonds and other commodities will impact Zales’s business
- Zales is more vulnerable to economic downturns than its high end competitors
- Competition
- References
