Dillard’s leaders: Sioux Falls is ‘long-term investment’
March 6, 2024
Dillard’s officially marked its grand opening in Sioux Falls today, and members of its executive leadership team said they expect the store to be in the market for decades to come.
“This is an investment,” said William Dillard III, a third-generation leader of the business who serves as senior vice president. “We’re partners with the mall operators and partners with the community as well. It’s a long-term bet versus a short-term bet.”
Dillard and Chris Johnson, the company’s senior vice president and principal financial officer, began the grand-opening day as panelists to kick off the second annual SiouxFalls.Business CEO Summit, in partnership with MarketBeat.
The Sioux Falls store at The Empire Mall opened with a line out the door into the food court both for its soft opening Friday and its grand opening and ribbon-cutting today.
The space is a former Younkers, and one of the first properties Dillard’s considered when the Younkers parent company, Bonton Holdings Inc., filed for bankruptcy in 2018.
“I go off metrics and sweet spots, and this market hit it,” Johnson said. “We went around and looked at a bunch of different markets, and this is one of the ones we eyeballed first.”
Dillard’s expanded the Younkers footprint for a total of 140,000 square feet.
“It’s a wonderful community, great size, and the trade area is really attractive to us,” Dillard said. “We’ve already heard this from the store that people are driving three hours, so that doesn’t happen many places. This is a very unique place.”
As a family business that evolved into a publicly traded company, Dillard’s has not experienced the sort of mass store closures and resulting layoffs as some other players in the department store sector.
“They think in quarters, and we really think in quarter-centuries,” Dillard said. “I think that’s a benefit from a family enterprise that we’re just not in a hurry. We’re quick, but we don’t hurry. We take our time, and we’re willing to invest for things we see that can be multiple years in the future payoffs, but we know they’re going to pay off.”
The post-pandemic retail landscape has continued to evolve, and the coming year is one of cautious optimism, the executives said.
Formalwear and men’s suits and ties, things that some speculated “were gone forever,” have come back “extremely strong,” Dillard said. “We were either too hardheaded or stubborn to switch on that, and we stayed in it, and that business is double what it was before the pandemic.”
Cosmetics, especially perfume, is a growing category, he added. Dillard’s also counts about 25 percent of its inventory in brands that are exclusive to the store. Inventory is about 25 percent less across the board from pre-pandemic levels.
“We try to build a business model that can react quickly and a balance sheet and financial approach that is a fortress – that no matter what, we’re going to be the last man standing,” Dillard said. “We have a very conservative, traditional approach to the finance side and an aggressive, nimble approach to the merchandising.”
The store also has stepped up its staffing, with plans to reach 100 employees at the Sioux Falls location.
“Most retailers have stripped service out of their business model, and we have doubled down in the way we approach it, our spend at it, our approach to education and training and talent and hopefully attraction and retention,” Dillard said.
His father, William Dillard II, is CEO, and at age 79, still visits all 274 stores each year.
“That personal touch the company has with the stores, with the sales associates, I think sets us apart,” Johnson said. “A lot of big-box retailers have lost sight of that, and I think that’s a real key thing that’s helped us. The family is very involved in things, and they care.”
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