Mosaic Brands CEO Scott Evans has revealed to Ragtrader which new brands Rivers is set to introduce as part of its 'Big brands, Low Prices' strategy.
Rivers is set to introduce brands including Fila, Reebok, Levi's, Nautica, Samsung and Sony to its product mix.
The launch comes as the strategy pays dividends for Rivers, with the branded and general merchandise percentage contribution of total sales doubling over the past 12 months and growing on a weekly basis.
"The big brands strategy is what drives excitement," Evans said of the strategy.
"We source these big brands from around the globe, across multiple categories, from clothing to footwear, electrical to homewares.
"We research trends to ensure we always have what is on trend right now available.
"These international well-known brands resonate with our loyal customers but we’re also surprising them with our low pricing value offer," he said.
The news comes as Mosaic reports that it has seen material sales improvements post-Easter, aided by the vaccine rollout.
In a trading update released yesterday, the business reported that it expects a full year underlying EBITDA of $48 million (excluding Ezibuy) for FY21, subject to no widespread lockdowns.
Additionally, as a result of a more efficient cost of doing business, a healthy stock position, solid online performance and growing consumer confidence, the Group expects to achieve comparable sales growth in the next financial year.
This will result in a full year underlying EBITDA of approximately $50 million in FY22, notwithstanding the loss of JobKeeper.
"We have reshaped our cost base, our inventory holding and remained focused on margin rather than chasing sales at any cost," Evans commented.
"After the toughest 18 months imaginable including the bushfires and COVID-19 pandemic, we are confident that Mosaic Brands has come through stronger and better with a very clear path to returning to our year on year track record of profitability and growth.
"Aligned with the vaccine rollout, since Easter every week sees more and more of our customers heading back into store.
"Encouragingly even with the gradual return to normalised shopping behaviour our online sales continue to perform well and grow.
"Following the exercise of the EziBuy option, total Group online sales will deliver approximately 30% of annual revenue," he said.
In the update, Mosaic Brands detailed the progress of the EziBuy acquisition, stating that it has renegotiated the terms of the option to extend the exercise period from June 30 2021 to September 30 2021.
The business has also negotiated an extension to the payment terms to December 31 2021.
As a result of this negotiation, Mosaic now intends to exercise the option on or around September 30, subject to there being no material adverse change.
This will propel the Group's digital revenue to over $200 million - roughly 30% of total income.
"The acquisition of EziBuy is another step towards establishing Mosaic as the leading omnichannel retailer in the female apparel sector," the business said in a statement.
"The Group believes the customers' shift to online, driven in part by COVID-19, is permanent."
Mosaic expects EziBuy to deliver a normalised underlying EBITDA of approximately NZD$2.5 million in FY21 and NZD$5 million in FY22 pre synergies, which are forecasted to be in the range of NZD$3 to $5 million on an annual run rate once process are aligned with Mosaic's operations.