BY MITCH MAC DONALD, GROUP EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
THE DC VELOCITY Q&A
Stage
presence
Rising costs and a stubborn
recession weren’t enough
to throw Gough Grubbs
of Stage Stores off his
game. He simply used
them as an opportunity
for some creative
collaboration.
thoughtleaders
IT’S BEEN SAID THAT HISTORICALLY, THE SHIPPER
community gets creative when its collective back is to the
wall. Gough Grubbs of Stage Stores is a prime example of
that. During the most recent economic slump, Grubbs col-
laborated with his company’s dedicated outbound carrier
to work out a new delivery regimen that saved everybody
time and money. His takeaway from that experience?
“Economic downturns can actually be positive,” he says, “in
that they force the kind of communication with business
partners that we should have had all along.”
Grubbs is senior vice president of distribution and logis-
tics at Stage Stores, a retail chain that operates more than
800 stores under the Goody’s, Bealls, Palais Royal, Peebles,
and Stage brands. He joined the retailer in 1996, following
23 years in distribution positions with Foley’s (May Co.)
and Sanger Harris (Federated Department Stores).
Grubbs holds a B.A. in business management from the
University of Texas at Arlington and is a frequent speaker on
the logistics and supply chain conference circuit. He recent-
ly spoke with DC VELOCITY Group Editorial Director Mitch
Mac Donald about the operation he oversees, his manage-
ment philosophy, and how he was converted from skeptic to
hard-core fan of transportation management systems.
QCould you tell us a little about Stage Stores and how it has grown since you joined the company?
AWhen I arrived back in 1996, Stage was operating 235 stores in 13 states. Today, we have over 800 stores in 39
states and continue to expand. This fall, we’re opening a
store in Wyoming, which will be our 40th state. Our aim is
to have over 1,000 stores by 2014.
We sell name brand apparel, footwear, cosmetics, and
jewelry to rural America. Our focus niche is to be in towns
of less than 50,000, although over the years, some of those
towns have grown well beyond that.
QCould you briefly describe the distribution network that serves those stores?
AWe have three DCs—in Jacksonville, Texas; South Hill, Va.; and Jeffersonville, Ohio. Those DCs have a
combined capacity of 1,150 stores, so you can see we have
quite a bit of growth potential as long as we stay within our
