Group CEO of Accent Group, Daniel Agostinelli speaks to Imogen Bailey about the new store formats at Hype, Platypus and Skechers.
Walk me through the new store concepts and why they've been implemented.
There's essentially three new concepts, one is the Skechers large format, outlet-type store. We've opened one of those at Auburn and we've opened one in the old Rivers site at Skechers Homebush DFO. It's a new concept for Skechers in the US – or new-ish concept – where they have had super success in the country, so we thought we would try it and we are delighted with current results.
The other one we've done is Platypus. We've just totally re-fitted our store at Bondi Junction in Sydney. Platypus has always been a good store, but we thought it was time for us to elevate our concept and continue to look for the next thing to keep it vibrant. We've done that fit-out there in the same location we were in, and once again, so far very pleasing results coming from that.
Essentially all that we've done is showcase our products a whole lot better and we feel that we've innovated enough for the Platypus business to be elevated to the next level of its evolution to where we're taking this business.
And the last one is Hype. We've re-opened and completely re-modelled the store at QVB in Sydney. It's much more minimalistic – a lot of white and metal-type finishes – very very different to what we've done before. The team and the new product mix, is certainly saying to us that we need to expand this model, it's been a very solid success.
We are now going to do the same thing and test it in a completely different market being Erina Fair and at the same time we will take it to New Zealand.
We've [also] opened our very first Dr Martens store in Sydney Westfield CBD. It's a tiny store, it was meant to be a showcase of the brand, but it's been just a tremendous success, not only showcasing our brand, but delivering fantastic sales. On the back of that we've now signed up Chadstone and we're looking for a store somewhere in Melbourne CBD.
So we've got four or five good things going on and our big pledge to our customer base and our team is that we want to innovate or we will simply die and that's the big push we've got; innovate or die.
Is the plan to bring the new concept to all of the stores?
Well as the renewals come up in any stores where the commercials make sense, like rent and so on, we will look to either completely re-fit to the new models of each division or some sort of element that will make it look at least, like we've taken it to the next level.
We wanted to make sure we didn't just become a 'me too,' where people have done something and we've just done the same sort of thing. So we've gone about keeping our original DNA whilst introducing new products [and] a new feel.
Are you trying to promote word-of-mouth and social media reactions to the new stores?
It's all intertwined from our point of view and absolutely yes, social media for us is huge. The reaction we got from the 'likes' and the people that have commented has been terrific. We've got our Digital Hub which is where we operate anything digital for the group – online and so on. That's screaming ahead and that's helping push the look and feel both ways. So the stores are cool, the website's cool, that's what we're working towards.
