Wyoming Business: Sierra Trading Post plugs ahead in new economy

CHEYENNE — Like many businesses, Sierra Trading Post is facing an uncertain economy in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the United States, the stock market plunge and consumer uneasiness, but it’s pushing ahead at nearly full speed.

The Cheyenne-based mail-order and e-business clothing and outdoor-gear company is vigorously promoting a nationwide sale and is holding off on construction of a new fulfillment center to enable it to buy additional inventory for its customers.

“We decided we’re not going to roll over,” company founder and president Keith Richardson told the Venture West Network quarterly meeting. “We might as well jump the gun and be one of the first ones out there. Our prices already are good, but we’re going to offer them a deal they can’t refuse.”

The deals are starting now. Sierra Trading Post had poor response from its latest catalog mailing just before the terrorist attacks, so it plans to re-mail them to key customers offering a 10 percent discount to “defray some of the hassle” of slower mailing times.

Housing costs outpace incomes

Cheyenne, Laramie County, and most of Wyoming need more affordable housing, according to Randy Dancliff, director of Wyoming’s Fannie Mae Corp. office.

Dancliff, a long-time commercial banker in Cheyenne, sums up the problem as a case of “our income not keeping up with the cost of housing” and not enough available low-cost housing to meet demand.

Over the past 20 years, Wyoming’s average wage has dropped (from approximately $27,500 in 1981 to $25,000 in 1999), while the cost of renting or buying a house has increased by about a third, he noted. Nearly three times as many new construction permits were issued in 1981 as last year.

And perhaps most striking, nearly a quarter of the borrowers for homes last year were women, compared to less than 5 percent in 1980, and the percentage of borrowers that are married has dropped from 80 percent in 1980 to 54 percent in 2000.

What can be done? Dancliff urges Cheyenne to create a larger inventory of affordable housing and create affordable financing through such programs as employer-assisted housing, the Cheyenne Housing Opportunities Program and down-payment assistance programs.

Outback opens in Cheyenne

CHEYENNE — There’s room in the growing Cheyenne and Fort Collins markets for two Outback Steakhouses, according to Tom Flanagan, Outback joint venture partner who supervises the fast-growing chain’s properties in Colorado, Wyoming and Montana.

Flanagan said Outback initially was reluctant to locate in Cheyenne because of fears it would hurt its Outback Steakhouse in Fort Collins.

“Thirteen to 15 percent of our clientele was coming from Cheyenne and Laramie, but that area has grown,” Flanagan said of the Fort Collins market. “I think the number of people from Cheyenne and Wyoming is still the same, but the percentage has dropped down to 5 percent, so that enabled us to come up here and start looking for sites about a year ago.”

Cheyenne’s Outback Steakhouse opened Sept. 25 with Chris Brown as manager. Brown started as a server at Outback in his hometown of Peabody, Mass., and then worked in Outbacks in Fort Collins and Casper before coming to Cheyenne.

Venture West hears from entrepreneurs

CHEYENNE — Wyoming’s Venture West Network Inc. capital club heard pitches recently from a California entrepreneur whose company wants to build cars that fly and a Colorado company that wants to acquire patents on anti-friction coatings for guns and other metals.

Roadable Aircraft International Inc., was formed last year, according to CEO Aggie Mazar, to help inventor Nick Geranio realize his decade-long dream of developing a 21st-century vehicle that can convert to an airplane.

The other presenter, Ray H. Moroye, CEO of Sportsman’s Lair of Grand Junction, described his company’s effort to acquire Olympic Arms, a Washington State firm that has developed innovative coatings for firearms that help reduce friction.

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