Mr Price enters Australian retail market

South African value retailer Mr Price plans to open stores in Australia during October. The decision was taken to move into brick-and-mortar Australian stores after Mr Price recently enjoyed strong online sales in that country. Although it has a relatively small population – expected to reach 24 million this year – Australia is now reportedly one of the company’s top five markets. There are some 150,000 South Africans living and working in Australia.

According to Mr Price chief executive Stuart Bird, the performance of new channels and markets was ‘very encouraging’, and provided early support for the company’s intentions of taking proven business concepts to new territories rather than looking for acquisitive growth.

Mr Price currently operates more than 1,000 stores, mainly selling footwear, private label apparel, sleepwear, homeware and sporting goods. The company’s management believes that it is in a better position than northern hemisphere retailers to supply seasonally relevant clothing and footwear to Australian consumers.

Publishing Data

This article was originally published on page 4 of the October 2015 issue of SATRA Bulletin.

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