Forty-five years after opening its first store and nearly 25 years after going public, dressbarn is still managed by its founding family. But as this agile company demonstrates, continuity doesn’t mean stasis.

Since its early days as an off-price discounter, dressbarn has reinvented itself several times, most recently as a specialty retailer — and has held onto its target customers at a time when other retailers catering to the same demographic have gone out of business.

Apparel spoke with David Jaffe, dressbarn’s president, CEO and the son of its founders, and with Vivian Behrens, senior vice president and chief marketing officer. They explained the logic behind the company’s transformation and its plans for the future.

Apparel:  Who is the dressbarn customer, and what is she looking for?

Dressbarn: Typically, our customers are moderate-income women age 35 to 54. Most of them have families and work, at least part-time, at “pink collar” jobs — as office managers, teachers, nurses, clerical workers. Although they’re on a budget, they want to look fashionable. They want the same fashions the boutiques and mall stores are showing.

Our customers are also looking for an intimate shopping experience. dressbarn stores run about 8,000 square feet, and they have pleasant environments, with nice carpeting and music. Our associates provide the kind of service you’d find in a boutique. They greet customers, help them find the right clothes for their figures, ask questions about their office dress codes. Associates know customers’ names and remember what they’ve bought in the past, so the experience has more of an emotional connection.

Apparel:  Isn’t personal service unusual in a moderate-priced clothing store?

Dressbarn: Our customers aren’t item hunting; they’re putting outfits together. We make it easy to create outfits: Our clothes have the same look and the same color palette, so customers can find tops and bottoms that match, and sweaters and blazers to complete the outfit. We arrange everything by lifestyle — we’ll put all the career casual clothing in one area, for example, instead of all the pants in one area and all the sweaters in another. This approach generates a UPT (units per transaction) of over three. But it takes selling and customer engagement by our associates. In J.C. Penney, you might come in for a skirt and walk out; indressbarn, an associate shows you other things that go with the skirt, and you’ll walk out with an outfit.

Apparel:  Why did you adopt the specialty retailing model?

Dressbarn: We used to be an off-pricer — we’d take national labels and discount them. We were a fashion follower. But the retail world changed. In the malls, customers moved away from department stores toward specialty stores, where the experience is better and fashion is more individualistic. But in the off-mall environment, where we are, specialty stores weren’t providing the same sense of style to their customers, and a lot of them were put out of business by the growth of companies such as Kohl’s, which answered the moderate customer’s needs. We realized that if we didn’t differentiate our offering from those of our competitors, who were so strong, we were going to die.

So we set about to change the whole company focus. Following a transitional period, we’re now selling 100 percent dressbarn label clothing, which is fashion current. The one thing we’ve maintained is the 99-cent ending on the prices, which our focus groups show is perceived as more value-oriented.

Apparel:  What else has changed?

Dressbarn: Five years ago, we were primarily a newspaper advertiser. When we started rethinking the business, we did an analysis that showed that newspaper advertising was not cost effective, but that direct mail was. So we increased our direct mail advertising and phased out ROP [run of print, or ads printed alongside newspaper articles]. We added advertising in lifestyle magazines to create dressbarn as a brand and not just a store.

We needed to get existing customers to come in and see the new fashions, and we also had to reach out to people who hadn’t thought about dressbarn in 25 years and get them to try us. We put beautiful window posters in the stores, and trained our sales associates better. If you walk by and see the posters, and you stick your head in and someone greets you and helps you and finds you something nice, then we’ve got you. We can sign you up for a credit card, and continue communicating with you.

The result: In the last four years we’ve turned around our comps [year-to-year changes in same-store sales], which had been minus 1 percent over 15 years, to 2 percent, then 5 percent, then 10 percent, and now the mid-single digits. Just as gratifying is the growth in operating margin, which is also up significantly.

Apparel:  Tell us about your recent acquisition of maurices, and whether you’re planning more acquisitions.

Dressbarn: We were fortunate to acquire maurices two and a half years ago, when its European parent divested all of its U.S. holdings. It targets the 18–34 age group, with a focus on the 20s, and its locations are off-mall, in suburbs and smaller towns. We found a tremendous cultural and values fit, since we’re both family-owned companies. maurices functions virtually independently, but we generate synergies through back-office leveraging of resource centers such as taxes and purchasing. In other areas, such as real estate, we work closely together.

Synergies and sharing have helped improve both brands’ performance. [Recently we opened] the 600th maurices store, and operating margins are at an all-time high. We think the business can grow to at least 1,000 stores.

Because we’ve learned a lot about putting together two strong companies and making them stronger, and because the increase in profitability has generated more free cash, we’ve started looking for another acquisition. We’re looking for a business with significant growth potential that’s complementary to dressbarn and maurices. We’d go one step away from what we’re doing now, but not two steps — maybe to teens, or kids or to a complementary product such as shoes. We waited a long time to find maurices, and it was worth the wait. So the next acquisition may happen in the near future, or it may never happen.

Masha Zager is a New York City-based free-lance writer who specializes in business and technology.