Cabela's 2005 Annual Report Download - page 16

Cabela’s®, Cabela’s Club®, Cabelas.com®, World’s Foremost Outfitter®, World’s Foremost Bank®, Bargain
Cave®, Dunn’s®, Van Dyke’s®, Wild Wings®and Herters®are registered trademarks that we own. Other service
marks, trademarks and trade names referred to in this report are the property of their respective owners.
Accomplishments in 2005
Fiscal 2005 was a year focused on growth, investment in infrastructure and use of our assets.
• We opened four new large format destination retail stores—the most we have ever opened in one year—
on time and on budget. These four stores increased our retail square footage by 59.3%.
• We initiated plans to open five new stores in 2006, six in 2007, and recently announced plans to open
our first Canadian destination retail store in Montreal, Quebec in late 2007 or early 2008.
• Our direct business continued on a strong steady growth pattern increasing revenue by $67.1 million, or
6.9%, to over $1.0 billion in fiscal 2005. Internet visits increased by 37.5% over fiscal 2004, and our
website was the most visited sports and fitness website in fiscal 2005 according to Hitwise Incorporated,
an online measurement company.
• Our wholly-owned bank subsidiary, World’s Foremost Bank, surpassed our expectations in profitability
and growth as it continues to build brand loyalty with our Cabela’s Club VISA card.
• We completed major enhancements to our website, www.cabelas.com, including a platform upgrade,
which better serves our customers, and a new system, which enables us to react better to our customer
shopping behaviors.
• We implemented interactive Retail store dashboarding that enables our store managers to have more
comprehensive store operating and performance information on their computer desktop.
• We completed the first phase of implementing a new warehouse management system that allows us to
more accurately and timely route customer orders based on available inventory and proximity to the
closest distribution location.
• We improved our store replenishment processes and implemented advanced replenishment software that
increases our ability to serve our customers by making sure we have the right product, at the right time,
in the right place.
• We implemented instant credit in our credit card booths located in our destination retail stores. This
allows customers applying for our Cabela’s Club Card to find out within minutes if they are approved
for our card.
• We installed labor scheduling software in our retail stores, allowing us to more efficiently staff our store
locations based on customer traffic.
• We gained better visibility and control over our store operations by implementing advanced loss
prevention software.
• We amended and restated our existing credit agreement, increasing our revolving credit facility to $325
million and extending its term to five years. The credit facility may be increased to $450 million upon
our request and with the consent of the banks party to the credit agreement.
• We worked with local municipalities to retire $60.1 million of principal on economic development
bonds as part of our strategy of utilizing these economic development bonds to increase our return on
investment for our destination retail stores.
• We initiated the private placement of $215 million of long-term debt securities. This transaction closed
on February 27, 2006, and we expect to use the funds primarily for our retail expansion in 2006.
• World’s Foremost Bank successfully completed another securitization transaction under favorable
terms, securitizing an additional $250 million in credit card loans.
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