BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (December 9, 2011) – National sporting goods retailer Hibbett
Sporting Goods, Inc. operating as Hibbett Sports has opened its newest store in Benton,
Illinois. The new store opened at 11 North Rend Lake Plaza in Benton on Thursday,
December 8 and will employ approximately eight full and part-time team members.
Announcing the opening, Jeff Rosenthal, President and CEO of Hibbett Sporting Goods,
Inc. said, “This convenient new location is a win-win for our company and the Benton
community. We are very excited to be serving the customers in this area.”
Hibbett Sports stocks a large selection of athletic footwear, athletic apparel and team
athletic equipment. “With the buying power of a national company, we offer our
customers the convenience of buying the best in sports, right in their own
neighborhoods,” said Rosenthal, “and we extensively train our employees to make sure
they can provide superior service to our customers.”
“We research the markets we enter to learn what the customers of that area want from a
sporting goods store,” added Rosenthal. “We constantly update our merchandise
assortment to offer the latest in product technology, performance and fashion so that we
can meet the diverse needs of our customer’s active lifestyles.”
Hibbett Sports also offers customers a valuable customer loyalty program, the Hibbett
Sports MVP Rewards program. “Our customers in Benton can go online to
www.hibbett.com today and sign up for the program to start earning points with their
very first purchases,” said Rosenthal.
Illinois has been a target of the company’s expansion for several years now. With the
addition of the Benton location, the company has 19 stores open in Illinois. Of those
stores, Carbondale was the first to open in 1991. The Benton location joins a growing
number of Hibbett Sports stores in south Illinois, including stores in Carbondale, Mt.
Vernon and Harrisburg.
In business since 1945, Hibbett Sporting Goods, Inc. operates over 800 sporting goods
stores in small to mid-sized markets, predominantly in the Sunbelt, Mid-Atlantic and the
Lower Midwest. The company’s primary store format is a 5,000 square-foot store
located in dominant strip centers and enclosed malls. Each store typically lies within 150
miles of another store location.
