Page 7 - Ragtrader Magazine April 2020

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NEWS APRIL 2020 7
Witchery reveals COVID-19 impacts
Witchery has flagged the staggered information coming from China amid the COVID-19 fallout as one of the key concerns for the business. Witchery MD Simon Schofield told Ragtrader that the business’ relationships with its suppli- ers are extremely strong and that they are working with them to mitigate the impact. “We’re hugely sympathetic to those who have been affected and we’re working closely with our suppliers through our supply team and our produc- tion team to manage that. We’re very fortunate that we have long-standing
4relationships with our suppliers – we’ve been working with them for many years so it does stand us in very good stead. But we’re just waiting on infor- mation as it comes through day by day – we still have whole areas of China where they’re still not open, where they haven’t returned to work. Getting that information out is just taking time as they come back to work, as they assess how much has come back and therefore what impact that might have from a delivery perspective and how we negotiate that. We’re really monitoring that and working as closely as we can to manage the impact and we obviously have tactics in place if we need to,” he said. Schofield added that the impact to Witchery from a lack of Chinese tourist spending over Chinese New Year has been minimal. “The tourist impact is minimal given a lot of our sales are local and they come majority from our database which are particularly loyal so that’s a minimal impact for us. Really our biggest issue is forward stock and forward ranges, particularly as we go into peak winter which we know is immensely important as a retailer. It’s really about managing and protecting as much of that stock as we can do,” he said.
5Ecco reveals next location for Prime Store
Following the opening of its Pitt St Prime Concept store, Ecco executive Jeff Karger told Ragtrader the business is scheduled to open more Prime Concept stores across Australia. “The response to Pitt St has been amazing especially considering the current trad- ing conditions. We are seeing a new, generation of Ecco consumers that hadn’t previously considered Ecco before entering the store and leaving with products from our new arrivals.” The company has just relocated its Emporium, Melbourne store and opened with the same Prime fit-out as Pitt St. As part of its premiumisation strategy, all new stores and refits on existing stores will be under the Prime Concept. “We even have a Prime Outlet fitout which will be unveiled in our DFO South Wharf store later this year. This will be the first Prime Outlet store in Asia Pacific.” Ecco's next standard store will be opened in Claremont, Perth, Western Australia later this month. “This will be an absolute statement piece for Ecco as our only other representation on the West Coast is an outlet,” he said.