High-street retailer General Pants Co is gearing up to open its first store in Western Australia, with two more stores planned for launch in the coming months.
The brand's Perth flagship, which will open on
August 13, is located within Murray Street Mall and will
feature the “usual CBD fit out and range, similar to Bourke Street and Pitt
Street” Sydney outlets, according to General Pants Co chief executive Craig
King.
However, King has confirmed that
the store will incorporate “something specifically Perth to make the store
'local'”.
“We have a solid concentration of stores on the Eastern sea board and we are looking to grow after the sale of our surf business last November. WA has been a hot spot for our online store so we are confident there are some GP Crew out West,” King said.
“We are also confident in our product mix and our presentation and will launch with a mix of virtual and actual events. In fact, a Facebook page was started by a local called 'Bring General Pants to Perth' and we’ve actually contacted him to help with our launch via various social media opportunities.”
King also revealed that the company plans to open another store in Adelaide at Rundle Mall in October, along with two more in other locations before the end of the year. This will take the GP store count to 44, including one Denim Co boutique – the brand's new concept store, as reported in the Ragtrader print edition [June 3].
According to King, the General Pants stable still has “plenty of growth still available in Oz before we look at the overseas market”, but the retailer is currently working on a couple of derivatives which “has the team pretty engaged”.
“We are also working on a high end GP Co which is to take our 20 to 30-year-old customer into their 30s and beyond. There is also the potential for some of our own brands to open stand-alone stores. We feel that the overall product offer has broad appeal but might be better suited if we were to target specific demographic with different retail executions.”