Savers Value Village, Inc. together with its wholly owned subsidiaries, sells secondhand merchandise primarily in retail stores located in the United States (‘U.S.’), Canada and Australia.
The company operates multiple stores under the Savers, Value Village, Value Village Boutique, Village des Valeurs, Unique, and 2nd Ave. banners. As of December 28, 2024, the company had some stores in the U.S., some stores in Canada, and a few stores in Australia.
The company is committed to redefining secon...
Savers Value Village, Inc. together with its wholly owned subsidiaries, sells secondhand merchandise primarily in retail stores located in the United States (‘U.S.’), Canada and Australia.
The company operates multiple stores under the Savers, Value Village, Value Village Boutique, Village des Valeurs, Unique, and 2nd Ave. banners. As of December 28, 2024, the company had some stores in the U.S., some stores in Canada, and a few stores in Australia.
The company is committed to redefining secondhand shopping by providing one-of-a-kind, low-priced merchandise ranging from quality clothing to home goods in an exciting treasure-hunt shopping environment. It purchases secondhand textiles (e.g., clothing, bedding, and bath items), shoes, accessories, housewares, books, and other goods from its non-profit partners (‘NPPs’). The company then processes, selects, prices, merchandises, and sells these items in its stores.
The company offers a dynamic, ever-changing selection of items. It has an engaged customer base, with over 5.9 million active loyalty program members in the U.S. and Canada who shopped with the company during fiscal year 2024, driving 72.4% of retail sales for the year. The company’s business model is rooted in sustainability and contributing to the communities it serves, with a mission to positively impact its stakeholders—thrifters, NPPs and their donors, team members, and stockholders. As a player in the for-profit thrift category, the company seeks to positively impact the environment by reducing waste and extending the life of reusable goods.
Processing
The majority of the company’s retail stores have a dedicated space that handles the processing of soft and hard goods that provide the inventory to be sold on its retail sales floors. The company is actively implementing its offsite processing strategy, which allows it to process goods at larger-scale facilities and distribute goods to multiple stores in a local market. The CPC system is an offsite, semi-automated processing facility that mechanizes the flow of clothing, accessories, and shoes through an integrated series of conveyor belts, robotics, sensors, and other technology. The company has prioritized offsite processing capacity toward new store growth that would not be feasible without offsite processing. In addition, it continues to deploy Automated Book Processing (‘ABP’) systems at its offsite processing facilities and in stores. The ABP system is an integrated set of technologies that efficiently identify, price, and sort books based on their critical attributes (e.g., genre, author, market price). The system design consists of conveyors, optic recognition, robot tagging, and an automated book distribution system, all working in concert to increase throughput eightfold over the company’s traditional, manual process.
Retail
The company’s store experience directly reflects its mission to make secondhand second nature. It delivers a well-merchandised environment that maximizes customer engagement and supports a core tenet for any thrifter—the treasure hunt. The average store has approximately 20,100 square feet of retail space and offers a wide selection of quality items across clothing, home goods, books, and other items at convenient locations. In fiscal year 2024, nearly 34,000 items were merchandised per store every week. The company’s sales floor inventory is also regularly rotated and refreshed, with inventory turns of more than 15 times a year, providing its customers with an extensive, ever-changing selection at tremendous value.
Furthermore, the company has a continuous feedback loop to which it conducts surveys to take the pulse of its customers on a weekly basis regarding the shopping experience and environment. This information is proactively shared with its leadership team and cascaded to store managers, who are measured on their ability to improve operations.
As of December 28, 2024, the company had some stores in the U.S., some stores in Canada, and a few stores in Australia. It operates under six distinct store banners: Savers, Value Village, Value Village Boutique, Village des Valeurs, Unique, and 2nd Ave.
Wholesale, Reuse, and Repurpose
The company sells the majority of textile items that are unsuited for, or unsold at, retail stores to its wholesale customers who reuse and repurpose the items it sells to them across a few continents and various countries. Textiles not suitable for reuse as secondhand clothing can be repurposed into other textile items (e.g., wiping rags) and post-consumer fibers (e.g., insulation, carpet padding), further reducing waste. The company typically sees fluctuation in the number of countries it sells into because it continually seeks to maximize revenue and mitigate the inherent risks of operating in wholesale markets, including fluidity in the end-user markets and shipping challenges.
The company has long-standing relationships with its wholesale customers and works directly with textile processors that have multiple reuse and repurposing streams. Other categories, such as hard goods, move directly to small businesses and shop owners in markets across the globe for resale in various retail forms.
Strategy
The key elements of the company’s strategy are to strategically grow its store base; drive comparable store sales growth; continue to implement strategic initiatives to drive efficiency; unlock new store potential; and selectively pursue other growth opportunities.
Seasonality
Supply from donations made to the company’s NPPs is usually slightly more concentrated during the second and third quarters of the year (year ended December 28, 2024), as it coincides with warmer periods, and customer demand for secondhand goods is usually slightly higher during the third and fourth quarters of the year, in part as a result of increased demand during the fall season.
Marketing and Brand Awareness
The company has recognizable brands in Canada. In the U.S., it has an opportunity to continue building brand awareness across its four brands.
The company drives traffic, acquires new customers and donors to its NPPs, and promotes brand awareness through an efficient, cost-effective mix of customer engagement (word-of-mouth), paid, and organic marketing. Its marketing channels and approach include social media, influencer engagement, digital media, email, text messaging, online, and in-store promotional materials, which support existing and new market entries. The company’s website is also an extension of its brand and retail stores, and serves as a marketing and informational tool.
To further strengthen brand awareness, particularly in the U.S., the company is partnering with authentic, relatable influencers with engaged audiences. Its roster of influencers has enabled the company to create a steady stream of on-brand, owned content. The company’s user and influencer-generated content strategy builds authenticity by celebrating the real, genuine shoppers who have shaped its brand image through social media, online, email, paid digital, and in-store signage, among other avenues.
Trademarks and Other Intellectual Property
The company owns federally registered trademarks related to its brands, including SAVERS, VALUE VILLAGE, UNIQUE, UNIQUE THRIFT STORE, 2ND AVE., 2ND AVE VALUE STORES in the U.S., VALUE VILLAGE and VILLAGE DES VALEURSMD in Canada, and SAVERS in Australia. In addition, the company owns federal trademarks for certain business programs, like FUNDRIVE and ALTEREGO in the U.S. and Canada, and SUPER SAVERS CLUB and GREENDROP in the U.S. (both pending in Canada). The company also pursues and maintains federal registrations for certain slogans that it uses, including THRIFT PROUD in the U.S., Canada, and Australia, and RETHINK REUSE and I GIVE A SH!RT in the U.S., as well as service marks, such as its stylized recycling symbol consisting of folded store tags.
Exclusive rights are held for CPC technology in the U.S. and Canada until December 2025. Exclusive rights to the CPC technology in Australia extended to October 2024; no purchase agreement for an Australia CPC was entered before the October 2024 deadline, so those rights lapsed as to Australia. Exclusive rights to the ABP technology in the U.S., Canada, and Australia extend to December 2029.
History
The company was founded in 1954. The company was incorporated in 2019. The company was formerly known as S-Evergreen Holding LLC and changed its name to Savers Value Village, Inc. in 2022.