Camilla: On the global trail

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Jac + Jack, Camilla and Alice McCall talk challenges and opportunities in the global retail landscape

An Austrian, a Russian and a German walk into a store – they're there to purchase a £700 sweater made by Australian brand Jac + Jack.

Some 18 months ago, the label's founders Jacqueline 'Jac' Hunt and business partner Lisa 'Jack' Dempsey made the move to London, launching their first international boutique.

With no marketing budget and zero brand awareness, Hunt says the label has managed to gain a strong consumer base, adapting to differences in the UK market.

“All we've got is our retail space, our staff and our clothes, that's it.

“So no marketing, no heat, no hype.

“Our stuff is expensive by the time you add on all the costings and VAT and all the rest of it - it's up there.

“There are £700 sweaters and people parting with their money and we've got a big returning customer now. It's just extraordinary.”

Despite the success of its first international store, Hunt reveals the launch wasn't devised to drive profit – yet.
In fact, it was all in the name of research.

“We wanted to explore the new market but we didn't want to do the wholesale model.

“We felt it just didn't suit our brand so we opened a very small store in W1, Central London, which we treated as a test site really and with a lot of stores obviously it's about profit, but with London it actually wasn't our goal.

“We wanted to find out information about the new market, our client, our price points. Did we get it right? Didn't we? We thought if it can wash its face and just break even, we'll be very happy. Then within 18 months, we can sort of make a decision about whether we'd open a second store.”

Lo and behold, Jac + Jack is set to open its second site next year in the lucrative Walton Street, a stone's throw away from London's iconic department store Harrods.

Understandably, as Hunt explains, the cost of renting in this prestigious part of town is high, yet from a trading perspective, there are incentives.

“The rents are phenomenal,” she concedes. “But in saying that, the revenue line is also phenomenal.”

Aside from opening its second standalone store in London, Jac + Jack is also continuing to bolster its wholesale business to enter the global market.

“We've just picked up Lane Crawford which is really exciting,” Hunt says. “We're moving into China.”

Jac + Jack is not alone.

Earlier this year, designer label Alice McCall opened its first international boutique in the Chinese city of Dalian.

Spurred on by the China free-trade agreement, the brand secured a franchise deal with businesswoman Giselle Wang under The GSL Group.

The partnership will see the roll out of around 10 Alice McCall stores in the region over the next five years.

Alice McCall global sales manager Kate Killey says the business has also been working hard to secure stockists across Europe.

In this instance, she believes wholesale is still an important expansion strategy for designers. The brand recently secured luxury department store Liberty for resort 2016/17.

“In the past 18 months we have seen huge international growth from Asia, through to Europe,” she says.

“The brand is now positioned in major international department stores including Saks 5th Ave, Intermix, Neiman Marcus and most recently Liberty.

For Australian womenswear designer Camilla Franks, wholesale is also a pre-runner to retail.

The designer has been scouting potential locations in the US, which currently accounts for over 47% of its global market share.

“As you can imagine, finding the right home for our first international store will take some time – it’s really important to me that we work toward perfection and not a timeline,” Franks says.

“For the time being, we’ll continue to test the waters with pop-up retail, trade shows and events with our stockists.”
The strategy has been supported with a broader hunt for operational sites.

“My tribe and I travelled to the US in July and viewed retail and showroom locations in LA, New York and Miami.

“We’re getting to know all the little pockets and where we might grow our base of Camilla customers.”

Franks says the team is investing heavily in existing relationships by increasing its staff count.

“To strengthen our existing stockist base, we have hired our first wave of international tribe members to work on the ground as part of a direct selling transition in the US.

“This strategy has succeeded in growing sales and space from season to season. We also invest in travelling to the market to run product knowledge and styling sessions, trade show events and personal appearances.”

There are potential hurdles ahead, Franks admits.

“The biggest challenge is meeting a wider customer demand while preserving our desire to connect with people on a personal level. We are known in Australia for the personal styling and relationships we have with customers in our 17 boutiques.”

For Jac + Jack, it is the structural complexity of international retail that poses a headache.

“The tax system is different, the way business is done, how stores are set up, the pricing structures,” Hunt explains.

"You know, it's starting again.”

She believes it is a risk Australian designers must take in order to gain momentum and harness opportunities in prosperous new markets.

“Lisa and I were joking that it's back to 2004 for us, but it was also sort of equally exciting because it's a brand new market.

Everything's new, nobody knows you, you can kind of reinvent again, so you can take all the experience that we've had in Australia over the past 14 years and kind of apply it to a new business.

“It's never smooth.”