Eddie Bauer To Open Three Stores In Japan; Tokyo Store Planned

Eddie Bauer Inc. will open three stores in Japan next year in a joint venture with its parent, Spiegel Inc., the women's and children's apparel catalog company, and Otto-Sumisho Inc.

Spiegel, which will have a 30 percent interest in the Eddie Bauer stores, also will launch a catalog in Japan. The Eddie Bauer stores will be their first out of the U.S.

At least one of the Eddie Bauer stores is expected to be in Tokyo, said Debbie Koopman, Spiegel's director of corporate relations. Spiegel said the companies could eventually open as many as 100 stores in Japan. The stores and catalogs will sell Redmond-based Eddie Bauer's sportswear, Home Collections and All Week Long-brand products, the company said.

The venture is expected to increase Spiegel's earnings, said Alexander Paris, president and retail analyst at Barrington Research Associates in Barrington, Ill. The Eddie Bauer division generated about 40 percent of the company's sales of $2.2 billion last year. Profits last year were $43.2 million, or 75 cents per share.

Same-store sales at the Eddie Bauer division have been "going great guns," Paris said, rising 19 percent in August and 11 percent in July.

Spiegel now markets Eddie Bauer products and distributes catalogs under the names New Hampton, Crayola Kids and For You from Spiegel from its headquarters in Downers Grove, Ill. The company also operates more than 280 specialty retail stores in the U.S. of which 274 are Eddie Bauer specialty stores.

Otto-Sumisho is a joint venture of Germany's Otto Versand, a mail-order company, and Sumitomo Corp., a Japanese trading company.