New Shopko Store Design Takes Top Honors

New Shopko Store Design Takes Top Honors

GREEN BAY, Wis., Feb. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Shopko announced today that it won first place in Chain Store Age's 2008 Retail Store of the Year design competition for the design of its new prototype store that debuted in Suamico, Wisconsin, early last year. Shopko's new store design will be profiled in the magazine's February issue.

The annual competition celebrates retail design across all industry segments. Designed by leading retail design firm Chute Gerdeman Retail in conjunction with Shopko's in-house design team the new store was a first place winner in the Discount Store/Mass Merchant category.

The new design, which will be used for future Shopko stores, incorporates a number of elements that give the store a stronger connection to its core customers -- women shoppers who are driven by value, convenience, and family.

The Shopko store experience was completely redesigned -- from the identity and exterior architecture to the interior design, floor plan, fixtures, adjacencies, and graphic communications. The new stores welcome shoppers with a central entry that feels like a specialty store -- modern and warm, with the new Shopko logo incorporated in the flooring. At the entry of each of the store's major departments, dramatic boutique focal points, incorporating classic design elements, help break up the big box feel and make the store easier to shop. Many of the focal areas are complemented by a generously proportioned lampshade overhead as well as an area rug below.

Columbus, OH-based Chute Gerdeman, known for delivering creative and fresh interpretations of retailers' brand stories, developed residential cues throughout the store. Armoire fixtures, comfortable seating, coffered ceiling elements, picture rails, crown molding, and crisp white woodwork highlight the merchandise and ensure design longevity. To more closely connect to the core customer, framed lifestyle imagery is displayed on the integrated rail system around the perimeter of the store -- much like she would proudly display family photos at home.

In October 2008, Shopko celebrated the grand openings of the second and third stores featuring the award-winning design, one in Sussex, Wisconsin and another in North Branch, Minnesota. A fourth store is currently under construction in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The store is on schedule to open in March of this year.

About Shopko

Shopko Stores Operating Co., LLC is an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners, Inc., a leading private investment firm focused on leverage buyouts, equity, debt, and other investments in market-leading companies that can benefit from its in-house operating professionals and experience. Shopko is a $2.2 billion retailer of quality goods and services headquartered in Green Bay, WI, with stores located in 13 states throughout the Midwest, Mountain and Pacific Northwest regions. Retail formats include 135 Shopko stores, providing quality name-brand merchandise, great values, pharmacy and optical services in small to mid-sized cities and 6 Shopko Express Rx stores, a convenient neighborhood drugstore concept. For more information, please visit http://www.shopko.com/.

About Chute Gerdeman Retail

Founded in 1989, Columbus, Ohio-based Chute Gerdeman Retail is a retail branding and design firm. The firm's client list includes M&M'S/Mars, Walt Disney Imagineering, Target, Levi Strauss, Tween Brands Inc., Kohl's, C&A Brazil, Shopko, Sheetz, Smithsonian, Hamleys (UK), Lowe's, Einstein Bros. Cafe, KFC (Japan), Hanesbrands Inc., Pepsi-Cola, Ross-Simons, Nationwide Arena, Marriott Vacation Club International, Starwood and Wolverine. In addition to its consistent recognition as one of the industry's "Most Exciting Design Firms" by the readers of DDI magazine for 11 years in a row, the firm has received numerous awards for its design leadership. For more information, go to http://www.chutegerdeman.com/.

Source: Shopko Stores Operating Co., LLC

CONTACT: Cindy Sahotsky of Shopko Stores Operating Co., LLC,
+1-920-429-4743

Web site: http://www.shopko.com/
http://www.chutegerdeman.com/

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