Destination XL announces future growth strategy

The company said, “Our long-range plan is grounded in multiple initiatives designed to meaningfully accelerate the growth trajectory of DXL. There is a substantial opportunity to drive brand awareness, take a greater share of the addressable market, and grow our top line by focusing on the following four growth objectives: Marketing & Brand Building: We have selected new creative and media agencies to develop, build, and execute a campaign that will drive an emotional connection to the DXL brand and drive brand awareness. We are planning a multi-channel campaign and are targeting an early summer multi-market test-launch. We are prepared to invest cautiously in this initiative, with total marketing costs increasing to approximately 7.0%-7.5% of sales in fiscal 2024. With favorable results, we plan to fund our marketing and brand building initiative at greater levels over time. Store Development: While we have stores in every major metro market across the United States, there are geographic voids in certain markets where big + tall consumers are not being served by a DXL store. Our consumer research indicates that 44% of big + tall men reported they do not shop with DXL because a store is not near them, while 35% self-reported that they do not shop with us because a store location is not conveniently near them. This past year we opened three new DXL stores, our first store openings since fiscal 2019. We plan to open an additional eight stores in fiscal 2024, with 15 new stores per year in fiscal 2025 through 2027. We also converted 11 Casual Male stores to DXL this year and expect to convert another five by the end of fiscal 2024. All new store and conversion investments are subject to rigorous ROIC hurdles that are informed by our prior experience. New Website Platform: We are upgrading our website from our legacy infrastructure to a new, modern commerce platform, with various features and functionality launching in the second half of fiscal 2024. We believe this upgrade will provide immediate performance improvements and customer experience benefits by eliminating friction points, optimizing search capability, and enhancing speed and response times. The new platform is engineered by a leading eCommerce technology provider and will position us to respond faster and more effectively to make changes in the future. Alliances & Collaborations: This past year we launched a new collaboration with UNTUCKit and added two more iconic brands to our assortment with Faherty and Hugo Boss, with door expansions planned for all three in fiscal 2024. We believe our heritage of providing a world-class consumer shopping experience makes DXL an ideal partner for collaborations and alliances. We are in the final stages of an agreement with another retailer that will allow us to sell our product through a new retail distribution channel that is aligned with DXL’s leading retail consumer experience.”