Expanding Her Turf
Barbara Turf’s Chicago roots run as deep as Crate & Barrel’s, but she’s taking the 47-year-old housewares chain far from home.
A former schoolteacher who joined Crate & Barrel 40 years ago as a part-time worker in its original store on Wells Street, Ms. Turf succeeded founder Gordon Segal as CEO early last year, just before the recession walloped retailers. In a departure from Mr. Segal’s conservative approach to growth, she’s opening Crate & Barrel’s first stores outside the U.S. amid the worst retail downturn in decades.
The native of Chicago’s West Side has hit the Canadian market, with stores in Toronto and Calgary. And this month she signed a franchise agreement to open two shops in Dubai, the shopping mecca of the Middle East. Next, she’s eyeing London, India and China.
“The challenge now for this mature of a company is to keep evolving it and keep it fresh,” Ms. Turf says in an interview at the company’s Northbrook headquarters. “Any forward-thinking company needs to be thinking globally today.” Read on…
Photo: John R. Boehm.
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