Article Excerpt:
TWST: What is Cabela's?Mr. Highby: Cabela's was founded in 1961 by Jim and Dick Cabela, with the concept of offering fishing flies for sale in a classified ad in national sporting magazines reading, 'Five hand-tied fishing flies. Free. 25 cents postage and handling.' That was the first ad. Cabela's started very, very small. I started with the company in 1976, when Cabela's was still a very small company. I was the 40th employee and the very first salaried employee. What the company was then compared to what we are today is very similar in certain ways as far as our dedication to our customers. Everybody says it, but here at Cabela's, the customer is really king. From its modest beginnings, the company now mails more than 120 million catalogs to more than 120 different countries each year. We have a very strong Internet presence. It's a big part of our business. We also operate what we call destination retail stores. Our larger stores measure more than 200,000 square feet. We have a fourth part of our business that's also very profitable, our own bank, World's Foremost Bank. When you wrap those four things together, it really creates what Cabela's is today. It's a multi-channel company catering to sportsmen and women who look for Cabela's to offer them, at competitive prices, the highest quality merchandise they need for enjoying the outdoors.
TWST: What is the competitive landscape, or more particularly, what
within the competitive landscape are you most focused on as you look at
your own strategies and goals?
Mr. Highby: As our company has matured through the years, we have had
various types of competitors, retail competitors and catalog
competitors. Today, we have one primary competitor left. Through the
years, we have either bettered our competitors or acquired them. But we
still just have one brand: Cabela's. We have decided not to use any of
the other brands that we have acquired through the years. There are
always people who will try to enter the direct business or people who
are in the direct business who compete with us, selling hunting,
fishing, camping and outdoor gear. Because we are the largest ' we mail
more than 120 million catalogs annually ' the Cabela's brand name is
incredibly strong. Our customers are very loyal. In recent years, our
company's philosophy has been to be diversified in this multi-channel
strategy, and our tremendous brand recognition has allowed us to open
destination retail stores in the United States. People are so familiar
with the Cabela's brand that we are able to open stores that are
150,000-200,000 square feet on average. The biggest one is nearly
250,000 square feet in Pennsylvania. With the pent-up demand we have
from all the direct business for over 40 years, these stores are very
successful. Our 2004 retail sales approached $400 per square foot.
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