More on Premier's global strategy - AFR: "In Korea, Thailand,...

More on Premier's global strategy - AFR:

"In Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and United Arab Emirates, Premier will act as a Smiggle wholesaler to local retailers, who will put the chain’s products in 100 stores from July, with more “doors” (as they are known in the trade) to come. A local retailer will also be used to take the brand into Canada.

Concessions are in place in the UK, in Selfridges and Harrods, and have just opened in Singapore.

And after looking at Continental Europe for years, Premier has opted to partner with Amazon Europe to get into France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

To be clear, Smiggle will have its own site, completely controlled by Premier, inside the Amazon ecosystem. And the lessons from this European deal with Amazon could eventually help Premier plot a push into the US.

“What we’ve been absolutely maniacally focused on is that we don’t lose our brand presence.”

— Mark McInnes, Premier Investments

In total, Premier says it can get Smiggle to a potential customer base of 775 million much faster and cheaper than it could have if it tried to expand alone.

“These new four pathways of growth will come at a higher EBIT margin, at materially less capital and generate much higher cashflow,” McInnes says.

A slowdown in British sales due to Brexit in the recent half underscores the logic of this expansion, McInnes argues, as it will help protect Premier from bearing the brunt of future geo-political events by effectively sharing these risks with partners.

And McInnes is comfortable that Premier can ensure that its new retail partners will maintain the company’s brand integrity, revealing that all partners have contractual obligations around store presentation, products, visual merchandising and service levels.

“What we’ve been absolutely maniacally focused on is that we don’t lose our brand presence.”