Retail focus helps Dreams awake to web sales topping $31 million

Dreams Inc., operator of FansEdge.com and ProSportsMemorabilia.com, reports fiscal 2007 web sales of $31.4 million, up 61% from fiscal 2006. Overall sales reached $56 million compared to $42.7 million in fiscal 2006, while fourth quarter 2007 revenue grew 27% to $14.6 million, up from $11.5 million for the same quarter last year.

The increases come from the company’s strategy of growing organically and through acquisition to become a multi-channel retail entity, says CEO Ross Tannenbaum. “Our overall objective is to establish a market-leading, totally licensed, sports and entertainment products enterprise and true multi-channel retailer. That is, to service the customer by every possible means necessary in an efficient and professional manner by driving and building our brands through online, bricks-and-mortar, catalog, and in-bound and out-bound call centers,” he says.

Dreams Inc., No. 289 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, offers nearly 65,000 sports products including officially licensed memorabilia of the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, NCAA and NASCAR. It sells products from more than 600 teams and more than 2,000 athletes through its company owned Field of Dreams stores and two web sites, FansEdge.com and ProSportsmemorabilia.com. Annual revenue from manufacturing and distribution was approximately $15 million for fiscal 2007, ended March 31, down slightly from $16 million in fiscal 2006.

By comparison, the company’s retail sector shot up by 57%—to $39.4 million—from $25.1 million in 2006.

Among Design Inc.’s sales initiatives over the past year were improved margins achieved by shifting its emphasis away from manufacturing to retail, and designing and building a prototype FansEdge bricks-and-mortar store in the Chicago area.

Future organic growth plans, Tannenbaum says, include building brand recognition; improving sales conversion rates in stores and web sites; exploring additional distribution channels; and “cross-pollinating” corporate assets among various operating divisions.

Acquisition initiatives will focus on “e-commerce companies; bricks-and-mortar retailers; other manufacturers of licensed sports and entertainment products and collectibles; companies that can offer incremental distribution channels for our products; and companies whose value can be enhanced by placing them under the Dreams corporate umbrella,” Tannenbaum says.