Three years after it opened to forecasts of $500,000 annual profits, the University of Hawaii athletic department’s sports logo wear and merchandising H-Zone store in Ward Centre will close.
Athletic director David Matlin said in an email response to questions whether the 1,465-square foot store in the Howard Hughes property would shut down, “when the lease expires at the end of June.”
UH will continue to operate outlets on campus at the Stan Sheriff Center and Les Murakami Stadium as well as maintain an online presence at H-Zoneonline.com.
The athletic department took over primary sports logo wear and merchandising in 2014 from Campus Services, which had operated Rainbowtiques in the Waikiki Marriott, Ward Centre and UH Manoa Bookstore. Campus Services retained the bookstore, while the Waikiki Marriott location was closed.
Athletics moved its re-branded H-Zone to a larger location within the Ward complex. In requesting approval for a three-year lease, the department told the Board of Regents it forecast a $500,000 profit in the first year.
But the anticipated profits failed to materialize and Matlin, who took over in 2015, said in a February 2016 report to the regents the store was losing $40,000 and “moving to another physical location is likely to result in even larger losses.”
Team performance, especially by the football team in 2014 and ’15, was cited as a contributing factor.
After some changes in operations, Matlin told regents in December 2016 the store had “cut the bleeding” and turned a $21,000 profit but wasn’t sure it made sense to sign a new, long-term lease.
The store had $126,934 in gross sales in December but had only six months when sales were in excess of the monthly break-even point, according to an independent auditor’s report.
