Renys plans to open its sixteenth store in Topsham Thurs., Aug. 18. It’s the department store chain’s second (and last) opening this year, after the April 14 opening of a store on Congress Street in Portland.
The announcement of the Topsham store coincided with the Portland opening, earning 2011 a prominent place in Renys history. “We’ve never opened two stores in one year,” Renys President John Reny said.
“We’re not going to open any more stores this year,” Reny said July 11 at his Newcastle office. “We’re going to have to see how these two shake out, number one.”
Three months in, the Portland store is “a success,” Reny said. “It’s going to be a good future for us there.”
“It seems to be a good fit for the community and the community’s a good fit for it,” Reny said. “We offer a lot of every day things that people need downtown at affordable prices.”
The swift expansion brings challenges. Unlike many larger retailers, Renys doesn’t have crews whose sole job it is to set up new stores. “You’ve got to take people away from what they’re doing,” Reny said.
“For Portland it wasn’t too bad,” Reny said. The preparation for the April 14 opening began around the New Year, at the traditionally slower time between Christmas and tourist season.
“Right now, our stores are busier than heck,” Reny said. It’s good news for the Topsham store’s crew, 40 of whom started July 11, Renys said.
Reny has confidence in the Topsham location – a 32,000 square foot space in the Topsham Fair Mall, formerly occupied by Village Candle and near a bustling Hannaford supermarket. “That’s a busy, busy mall,” Reny said.
Following the Topsham opening, Renys will shift focus to building on a reputation for superior customer service by installing a new, modern point of sale system at the stores. The expansion isn’t over, though.
“I would say 20 [stores] would probably be a good start. Or end. One or the other,” Reny said.
Reny believes the company has plenty of room to expand in Maine, but he didn’t rule out the possibility of branching out.
“A lot of our goods and services are Maine-based,” Reny said. “We live here, so stuff we sell is for people who live here or visit here. We know what they need every day and I think we provide it pretty well.”
Renys had a store in Littleton, N.H. in the 1960s, and while the store didn’t last, Reny said expansion outside Maine “would be potentially possible in New England.”
“I think our brand is marketable outside Maine,” Reny said.
The future of Renys will eventually include change in the central office, too. Bob Reny Jr., John’s younger brother and a former vice president of the company, retired from day to day operations this year.
“I like what I’m doing and I’m not going to jump out right away,” John Reny, 59, said. He is, however, grooming a successor in his daughter, Faustine Reny.
Faustine, 28, is the only Reny grandchild currently working for the company – the others either have established careers outside the company or are well on their way to doing so, she said.
Faustine remembers accompanying her father to work as a child in second grade, distracting the elder Reny with a barrage of questions about his work. As a freshman in high school, she worked at Renys because she couldn’t legally work elsewhere. She joined the company full-time in July 2009, in time to play an active role in the expansion.
Although Renys didn’t open a new store from 2004 (Wells) to 2011, the company was hardly idle. A series of additions and renovations and a move for one location (from Biddeford to neighboring Saco) marked the interim.
“We felt that we had to start opening new stores,” John Reny said. Despite – and partially because of – the recession, “there’s tons of good opportunities out there,” he said. “Rents are pretty cheap.”
“We were sought after by both landlords” of the new stores, Reny said. “People are calling me every day, wanting to put a Renys store some place.”
Ultimately, Bob Jr. and John Reny made the call to open on Congress Street after considering a former Marden’s location on Brighton Avenue.
The publicity that came with taking over the downtown space, formerly occupied by L.L. Bean and Olympia Sports, didn’t hurt. “We made a lot of noise going downtown Portland,” Reny said.
The two stores have created about 100 jobs, a figure Reny is proud of. “Considering the whole country added 18,000 new jobs last month, I think we’re doing a pretty good job here,” he said.
Reny has criticized the Maine legislature – long dominated by Democrats – in the past for its attitude toward business. He views the recent power shift as a positive development.
“The Republican legislature realizes that business is good for the economy,” Reny said. “We employ the people. To overtax us and over-regulate us is not good for the economy.”
The Republican landslide, however, didn’t affect the company’s decision to expand, and Reny scoffs at rumors that it received a tax break or any other financial incentive to open in Portland. “We didn’t get a dime,” he said.
All in all, with 16 stores or 20, Renys has traveled far since its 1949 founding, but the model remains the same.
In the coming weeks, Renys will send buyers to New York and Las Vegas. “We’re all the time looking for new goods, new deals, new pricing, new products,” Reny said.
