Bed Bath & Christmas Trees

Bed Bath & Beyond (Union, N.J.) has acquired Christmas Tree Shops Inc., the privately-held South Yarmouth, Mass.-based retailer of yuletide and other seasonal gifts and decorations, for $200 million.

The 30-year-old Christmas Tree Shops, which reported net sales of about $370 million in its most recent fiscal year, operates 23 stores in six states. Stores range in size from 6000 to 50,000 square feet, with 14 stores located in Massachusetts and the others in Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Maine and New York. An additional store is expected to open in Spring Valley, N.Y., later this year.

“We view Christmas Tree Shops' merchandise offerings and their knowledge base as extremely complementary to Bed Bath & Beyond's,” says president and chief executive Steven Temares.

He added that management at Christmas Tree Shops will stay in place to oversee the business.

The home goods retailer expects the purchase will begin adding to its earnings in the second half of 2003. Recently, the company announced that its consolidated net sales growth projections for fiscal 2003 should be in the 20 percent range.