-
THE KING OF SWEETS
Jeff Rubin, founder and CEO of It’Sugar, has always had a sweet tooth — and a passion for retail. Both are in his DNA. His father owned a chain of toy stores in the Midwest. After leaving the toy business, he went on to open a chain of bulk candy stores. Rubin worked on Wall Street for a while before returning home to help run the candy chain. In 1994, he left to go out on his own. He’s been on an upward trajectory since.
Experts credit Rubin with breathing new life into the candy store format. -
TWO TYPES OF INVESTMENTS
Joel Alden, partner in the retail practice at A.T. Kearney, said that investments in technology and physical stores mainly fall into two distinct categories: maintenance investments or growth investments.
“For maintenance investments — replacing a degrading building infrastructure, for example — the cost of not making the investment is critically important,” Alden said.
