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BURLINGTON, N.J. -- Off-pricer Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corp. has a new addition to its family of retail brands: Super Baby Depot. The second unit of its Super Baby Depot chain opened its doors in the Ontario Mills Mall in Ontario, Calif., on March 18, 2005, joining the initial store that opened on Sept. 17 last year in Moorestown, N.J. The company will also continue to expand the Baby Depot brand where it originated, within its Burlington Coat Factory division.

"These stores build on the success of the Baby Depot concept within our Burlington Coat Factory stores," said Monroe G. Milstein, chairman, president and ceo of Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corp., in an interview with DSN Retailing Today.

At the end of March there were 307 Baby Depots, including the two stand-alone stores, out of Burlington Coat Factory's approximately 360 units. Burlington Coat Factory posted sales of $2.8 billion in its last fiscal year.

While the baby business is booming, there are few specialists aside from local boutiques. Babies "R" Us is currently the dominant stand-alone national chain.

Like Babies' "R" Us, Super Baby Depot offers an extremely broad selection of hardlines and softlines--one-stop shopping for morns and rooms-to-be. Milstein's wife cofounded Baby Depot, which features apparel, baby carriages and nursery furniture from more than 100 vendors.

Super Baby Depot also offers amenities along the lines of Babies "R" Us, including diaper-changing facilities and complimentary gift wrapping. Likewise, Super Baby Depot also offers a baby gift registry, which ties in to approximately 300 Burlington Coat Factory stores featuring Baby Depot. There are also community events tied in to the chain, as at Babies "R" Us. These include the "Breakfast at Baby Depot" program, which offers information to parents on topics like child safety, as a community service.

Other attributes include a "Safety Super Center," featuring kitchen, bath and bedroom displays that allow customers to test products in home-like environments.

While Super Baby Depot fills a consumer need, it has also given Burlington Coat Factory a way to capitalize on real estate locations inappropriate for its larger full-line stores. The average size of a stand-alone Super Baby Depot is approximately 25,000 square feet.

"When spinning Super Baby Depot off into its own entity, it was clear that the stand-alone units could be in smaller locations than [are] needed for Burlington Coat Factory stores," said Milstein.

Super Baby Depot is not the only division of Burlington Coat Factory that is expanding. The company is also growing its MJM Designer Shoes division, a footwear superstore launched in 2001 comparable to DSW Shoe Warehouse. MJM is currently testing 30,000-square-foot stores, larger than its average 15,000-square-foot to 20,000-square-foot format.

"It's a learning process but so far this concept has gotten a very good consumer response," said Milstein. Other BCF divisions include Luxury Linens and Cohoes Fashions.

BCF's real estate options have been expanding as well, opening new doors, both figuratively and literally.

"We keep getting better and better locations as more and more department stores have gone out of business, "said Milstein. "Many malls that early on did not want to have a discounter in them will now knock on our door because it is very important for them to have an anchor. Wal-Mart has also recently shown interest in mall-based expansion.

Milstein added that mall owners recognize that Burlington Coat Factory is a traffic builder, "because we are heavy advertisers on national television and in papers."

Marketing is focused on BCF's discounted national brands. While some off-pricers, particularly store outlets, often produce some private brand merchandise, the success of most off-pricers is based on the brands they carry, including Burlington Coat factory.

"Jones New York, Calvin Klein and Bill Blass are staples in our stock," said Milstein.

The company has also shifted away from its focus on coats, despite the nameplate of what was founded as a wholesale business by Abe Milstein--Monroe's father--in 1924.

"Outerwear is now 20% or less of our total business while 10 years ago it was 60%," noted Milstein.

However, business in other categories has been incremental to outwear sales according to Milstein, who added that BCF is still No. 1 in coats.

"We've extended the trend of customers responding to better brands in apparel to handbags and accessories; it is sweeping through the entire company because that's the key to our success, to do more dollars per square foot in better merchandise without hurting the lower-priced consumer."

One of the reasons that Burlington has been able to come in with an improved brand assortment, to which Milstein attributes recent positive results, is the shift toward private label at department stores. This has led vendors to seek business in other tiers.

"We are able to work with manufacturers to buy top merchandise, to take goods in earlier and sell them earlier--on season--which has allowed us to give better values to consumers."

Whether in coats, footwear or under the Super Baby Depot concept, Milstein and his team seem to have found a formula for growth in the off-price retail environment.