Eye on Retail: Batteries Plus Bulbs ramps up expansion

Batteries Plus Bulbs is expanding its footprint.

The company opened 26 stores in 2017, with three corporate locations and 23 franchise-owned. It plans to open 47 stores in 2018, including 14 corporate locations and 33 franchise locations.

Batteries Plus Bulbs niche postitioning, investment in category expansion and emphasis on franchising has proved increasingly successful, with sales growth of 22.5% during the last three years. Same-store sales rose 3.7% in 2017.

The company has become the top phone repair franchise in terms of number of retail locations nationwide, serving the $3.9 billion repair industry. A significant category investment from 2016 to 2017 resulted in a 42% increase in total sales growth in phone repair. The light bulb replacement category grew 4.8%.

Also, the company's expansion of its We Fix It repair business has helped drive additional sales growth at the store level with its network of more than 700 stores performing nearly 650 different types of phone repairs in 2017.

Batteries Plus Bulbs is owned by Freeman Spogli, a private equity firm based in Los Angeles and New York City.