Sundance Holdings set sights on mall shops

ORLANDO, Fla. — Robert Redford’s Sundance Holdings is going bricks and mortar in a big way after more than 25 years as mostly a catalog and e-commerce site.

The $165 million company has just five stores, but is ramping up to open as many as 150, with three in the pipeline right now, Chief Executive Matey Erdos said at the ICR investor conference here, which provides private companies exposure to Wall Street analysts and bankers.

Redford is a part-owner of the company he founded as an outgrowth of his film festival in Salt Lake City, Utah.

“We are meeting with mall developers and setting the foundation for a larger retail platform,” Erdos said, pointing to the most recent stores to open in Edina, Minn., and Dallas late last year.

By 2018, Erdos expects to open as many as 20 stores, which sell mostly upscale women’s apparel, jewelry and home-design products.

New York designer Rebecca Minkoff had a coming-out party of sorts at the conference — her eponymous firm was invited last year, but declined to attend.

“We are starting to show up on the radar, appearing in Morgan Stanley and Piper Jaffray analyst reports, and felt that this was the right time to introduce ourselves,” said Craig Fleishman, senior VP of corporate development for the 10-year-old company.

The conference attendees are mostly Wall Street analysts and investors, but Fleishman said the company’s presence here “is not a pre-IPO” showing. Uri Minkoff, Rebecca’s brother and also chief executive of the company they co-founded, said the brand is “one of the fastest-growing in the fashion industry,” adding that it “crossed the $100 million sales threshold in 2014.”

As fast-food burger joints tear up the restaurant industry, casual sit-down eateries want a piece of the action.

Orlando-based Hurricane Grill & Wings, a $100 million franchise with 70 restaurants across the country, is opening its first fast-casual eatery, Hurricane BTW (which stands for burgers, tacos and wings), at the end of this month.

The 21-year-old, privately held company reported its first decline in same-store sales last year, down 0.75 percent, said Chief Executive John Metz.

Feeling pressures from rising labor costs and diners’ preferences for cheaper fast food, the company is opening seven new eateries, the first of which will launch in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. “We are trying to prepare for higher labor costs,” said board member Craig Weichmann in an interview. The company is seeking a strategic partner to invest up to $5 million in the company, which describes the new restaurants’ style as “beach shack.”

The average check at Hurricane BTW will be about $8 to $12, compared with the $18 check at the sit-down restaurants.