Premier Retail has announced the reopening of the balance of its Australian stores from May 15.
Stores in New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia, Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania will now reopen, excluding airports and some CBD stores.
Premier Retail had already reopened all of its Queensland and Northern Territory stores, except airports and some CBD stores, on May 7.
Premier Investments' Solomon Lew praised the government's response to the pandemic.
“It is an extraordinary achievement when compared to the rest of the world, which will support over a million Australian retail employees safely returning to work.”
In Australia and New Zealand, close to 70% of Premier Retail stores are either in holdover or with leases expiring in 2020.
The company has stated this will provide it with maximum flexibility.
During the period of the forced closures, due to government directions including stay at home orders, Premier Retail paid no rent globally.
In a statement, it outlined the next phase of its rent repayment plans.
“Given the severe economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the understandable level of public concern which will exist for some time, the customer response and trading activity during the next phase of our recovery and store re-opening remains highly uncertain and unpredictable.
“In addition, inventory levels and product assortments will be imbalanced until potentially December 2020.
“During this phase of re-opening and recovery, Premier Retail intends to pay rent in arrears for all stores at a gross percentage of sales.
“Premier looks forward to working with shopping centre landlords to help bring the economy back to life.”