New CEO aims to take Ollie's to new heights

(WHTM) — For more than four decades, it has been selling good stuff cheap.

Ollie's began here in the Midstate but has expanded its footprint dramatically. Our own Dennis Owens sat down with its new CEO, who wants to take it to new heights.

Eric van der Valk, Ollie's new President, CEO and bargain boss, has gained ground in the discount market, but he has larger aspirations.

This is a very fashionable skateboard, called Kryptonics," said van der Valk. "It's very well known in the marketplace. It had financial trouble, and we bought all of their inventory, and we're able to offer $100 skateboards for $19.99.

But where does Ollie's get such good stuff so cheap?

"Our buyers have incredible acumen for sniffing out the absolute best deals out there," said van der Valk.

Some manufacturers have excess inventory, others change packaging and discard the old look, and a few, like Big Lots, go out of business. Their pain can be Ollie's gain.

We do want everybody to be successful, but as the market consolidates and as other retailers go out of business, it's certainly an opportunity for us," said van der Valk. "It leaves more product out there for us to buy that's discount-oriented, or off-price.

Ollie's is also tariff-proof," Eric said, because customers don't demand any one product that he must stock. If he gets stuff cheap, he sells it. If not, he skips it.

"Today we turned down eight or nine out of every ten deals that cross our desk," said van der Valk.

It offers good deals, but Ollie's has become a big deal. It's opening its 600th store in its 34th state at a time when other brick-and-mortar stores are getting crushed by online retailers. When asked what he sees in his customer, van der Valk had a simple answer.

We call the environment of our store semi-lovely because it's somewhat warehouse-like in nature," he said. "We don't spend a tremendous amount of money building out stores or on our real estate. We deliver great products to our consumers, and you have to have a little bit of patience with the environment and understand what it is.

While some look down their nose at the store, Eric said upper middle class is Ollie's fastest growing demographic. Eric added their prices are cheap, but their products are not.

We see Range Rovers in the parking lot," he said. "We see expensive Mercedes out there.

With sales topping $2 billion last year, Ollie's has the attention of the business community. The president of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, Luke Bernstein, said its success lies in knowing its mission and sticking to it.

Their earnings look pretty good, I don't think people look down their nose at earnings," said Bernstein. "Clearly, this has worked for them, and they're growing. They're growing in revenue, they're growing in jobs, they're growing their footprint across Pennsylvania, so I think every company would not look down their nose at growing jobs, growing revenue, growing stock price. They've been a great success story for Pennsylvania.

Eric is Ollie's fourth CEO. He made more than $2 million last year, which may be a bargain considering he oversees 14,000 employees, and he wants to double the number of stores. He'll enthusiastically sell more and more stuff. Just don't call it cheap.

Not cheap. Good stuff. Cheap is the price, so value is what we're offering," said Eric. "We always are fiercely committed to offering the absolute best value in the marketplace, which is not a cheap product, it's a less expensive product. It's real brands at real bargain prices.

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