Solomon Lew steps up Smiggle offshore expansion

afr.com:

Retailing billionaire Solomon Lew is reigniting the offshore growth plans of the fashionable stationery chain Smiggle after it was hit hard in the COVID-19 pandemic where it shut 30 stores in the United Kingdom.

Mr Lew’s Premier Investments plans to open its first stand-alone Smiggle stores in the Middle East before Christmas and have 20 of the outlets operating in that region by this time next year. It aims to have at least 60 Smiggle stores in the Middle East within a decade.

Smiggle and the sleepwear chain Peter Alexander, which is planning to open its first United Kingdom store in 2024, are at the centre of a strategic review started in late August by Premier. It is examining options including having separately listed businesses as it also assesses different parent structures for the five clothing chains of Just Jeans, Jay Jays, Dotti, Portmans and Jacqui E.

The offshore expansion comes as Premier outlined on Thursday that overall sales in the six weeks covering August and part-way through September at Premier’s retail chains were down 2 per cent compared with the same time a year ago as shoppers cut back on discretionary spending.

Premier Investments chairman Solomon Lew (left) and the interim CEO of Premier’s retail businesses John Bryce (right) in Melbourne. Elke Meitzel

Mr Lew said the “size of the opportunity is big” for Smiggle beyond the Middle East, as he adds to the existing 301 bricks and mortar stores again, after having to scale back during the COVID-19 pandemic when sales were hit hard because of school closures and restrictions. The global store network was cut back by about 50 compared with 2019. About 30 of the outlets closed were in the UK.

Mr Lew said the optimum way of enabling overseas expansion