IPO Review: Investors See Good Deal in Ollie's Bargain Outlet on First Day

NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- Shares of Ollie's Bargain Outlet (OLLI) started trading on Nasdaq with a huge 30% jump after its first morning of trading. Having priced its 8.9 million shares at $16 a share, which was already $1 above the original IPO range of $13 to $15 a share, shares of Ollie's went as high as $22.99 in midmorning trading, Thursday. TheStreet's Ruben Ramirez spoke with the Mark Butler, Ollie's CEO at the Nasdaq exchange just after the company went public. On being asked what Ollie's is going to be doing with the $143 million raised, Butler responded that the company was going to "continue and grow the store chain." Butler shared how excited he was that Ollie's was able to "excite the investor community, just like we have consumers for the last thirty-three years." Ollie's calls itself a "fast-growing extreme value retailer." Butler said that Ollie's "buys merchandise of all descriptions and some beyond description," and then it gives customers a "thirty day no-hard-time guarantee" on their purchases. "We buy name brand closeouts direct from the manufacturer, bring it back to our stores, put stickers on it, and sell it direct to the consumer," Butler said. As to the term "fast growing," as written on the company's prospectus, Butler reiterated the sentiment saying that Ollie's "growth model is one of the most attractive things we have in our future." Ollie's currently has 186 stores in sixteen different states but Butler says that the company will "contiguously continue to grow and expand," adding that the company's growth has been in the mid-teens in the past eleven of years. Butler said that Ollie's is expecting to open "twenty-five to thirty stores this year and maybe next year a little bit more." As the economy has continued to recover in the United States, Butler says that Ollie's has been seeing an increase in both consumers' basket sizes in stores and in overall consumer traffic. "We are so blessed and fortunate to have a business that never goes out of style," Butler said. "Anybody in any generation has loved a bargain and that's going to continue." Butler said that Ollie's was "in it for the long haul," and that the company was "so excited to be able to excite the investment community."

By Ruben Ramirez 

Source: http://www.thestreet.com/story/13221688/1/investors-see-good-deal-in-ollies-bargain-outlet-on-first-day.html