Banking on Brookstone

This is a partial transcript from "Your World with Neil Cavuto", January 7, 2004, that was edited for clarity.

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NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Our next guest has plenty of items that would’ve made a great wedding gifts for the likes of Britney and Jason (search). We’re talking about Brookstone. Sales were soaring over the holidays, up more than 18 percent.

The stock’s not doing that badly either, up more than 10 percent just today. It has more than doubled in the last year.

Joining us now is the guy making that possible, Michael Anthony, Brookstone chairman and CEO.

Michael, good to have you.

MICHAEL ANTHONY, CEO, BROOKSTONE (BKST): Hi, Neil, great to be here.

CAVUTO: What was your biggest draw?

ANTHONY: Well, I think the whole concept of the store. I mean, we do something different. We are about unique, differentiated products, things that are unique in their quality, unique in their design, and they do a better job.

CAVUTO: How many of those $3,000 chairs did you sell, the vibrating chairs?

ANTHONY: Well, we sell thousands of those.

CAVUTO: Yes. Because I’m in a mall and I see people, they are lining up to get into that chair.

ANTHONY: They just love them.

CAVUTO: Now, it was interesting, because you road a wave that a lot of specialty retailers did. Sharper Image did very well as well. What do you think was the message this past holiday season? People seem to be less concerned about holding back on their wallet.

ANTHONY: I think in the case for Brookstone, over a course of a long period of time, we have been working to make unique, functional products, things that are better in their design, their quality. They solve problems and they do something. And I think that more and more, as we do more and more of that, and we create more new products like that, it just starts to synergistically build on itself. And so while we had a lot of products that showed very strong success, the whole concept, the whole store, everything that we had really performed quite well for us.

CAVUTO: I think what benefited you, too, is a lot of people who don’t know what to look for find something unusual that they’re not going to find elsewhere at your store, right?

ANTHONY: That’s true. You’re always going to find something unique at Brookstone. I mean, well over 75 percent of what we sell you will only find at Brookstone.

CAVUTO: Where do you see things going this year?

ANTHONY: We’re feeling pretty good. The trends that we saw during the holiday have continued into January. And we’re looking for a strong year in ‘04.

CAVUTO: All right. Now, they’re saying that this economy has to stumble a little bit this year because it has such a strong wind at its back, some comeuppances in order. Do you buy that?

ANTHONY: Well, I’ll tell you, in the case of Brookstone, we believe that good design and quality doesn’t have to cost a lot. And so more than half our store is $40 or less. And so what we have been able to prove over the course of good and difficult economic times, that we can still do well.

CAVUTO: You didn’t take any time off the holidays. You probably plowed right through them and -- do you secretly go into your stores and check if they are up to snuff and all that?

ANTHONY: We go in all the time.

CAVUTO: Do they ever know the big cheese is here?

ANTHONY: From time to time.

CAVUTO: So if you have a rude cashier waiting on you, he’s toast, I guess, right?

ANTHONY: Well, we’ll do our best to make sure our customers get treated as best as we can.

CAVUTO: Michael Anthony, congratulations on a great Christmas. He’s the chairman and CEO and the president if Brookstone, Inc.

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