As Ollie’s eyes expansion, retail vet joins board

After an initial public stock offering earlier this year, Ollie’s Bargain Outlet Holdings has added public company governance experience to its board with the appointment of Rue21’s top executive.



Ollie’s said Robert Fisch, chairman, president and CEO of specialty apparel retailer Rue21 had joined its board and increased to seven the number of members. Prior to Rue21, Fisch was president of Casual Corner Group and he has also served as a board member at Children’s Place Retail Stores.



"We are delighted to welcome Bob to the board and believe that we will benefit from his tremendous experience as both a seasoned executive and corporate director of leading publicly traded retailers,” said Mark Butler, chairman, president and CEO of the 192 unit Ollie’s chain.



Ollie’s went public in July, raising $143 million and alluding to the potential to expand its brand of discount retailing to 950 locations.



The company got off to a good start earlier in September, which it delivered strong sales growth in its first quarter as a public company and said it expected more of the same the same the rest of the year. Ollie’s expects the combination of between 25 and 30 new stores and same-store sales growth in the range of 3.3% to 3.8% will enable it to reach full year sales of as much as $741 million. Ollie’s has left plenty of room for it to exceed investor expectations as its second quarter same store sales advanced 7.8%.