Richard Whiteoak, the MD and founder of his namesake private equity firm behind SkinKandy, has lifted the lid on what drove the specialty retailer to success in its recent ASX debut.

After a $160 million debut on the exchange last Thursday, Whiteoak dramatically reduced its nearly 80 per cent stake in the business, one which it has held since 2019.

“It’s been a long journey since we’ve been involved in the company,” Richard Whiteoak told Inside Retail. “It’s been a privilege to work with a great team and a founder throughout the process.”

The market reacted strongly to SkinKandy, a further 6 per cent uplift in its share price bucked the trend of an in-store-only retailer with lofty ambitions.

“SkinKandy has very distinctive economics as a business, which makes it a very attractive proposition,” Whiteoak added. He described SkinKandy’s “rapid store repayments”, a result of its efficient start-up costs, and fast income stream through its specialist model, as the reasons behind its plans to roughly double its store network with this new influx of capital.

But not just in Australia.

“Work is underway in terms of where the right market would be,” Whiteoak said, while declining to divulge any contenders thus far. 

Attention now turns to one of Whiteoak’s most recent high-street plays. In April, the firm made the news for its “significant” investment in quick-service restaurant chain, Zeus Street Greek (ZSG). For Whiteoak, the parallels between ZSG and SkinKandy are emerging.

“Both have passionate founders who really care about the customer experience. We love backing businesses like that,” he said.

“I think it also has a significant scale opportunity; we would support that view, roughly tripling the store count as to where it is today.”

Much like SkinKandy, Whiteoak said success will come by managing this growth.

“The interesting thing with retail is that you don’t want to grow too quickly, because you have unsustainable growth,” he added. “People see the stores, but behind those stores, you need the right platform of capability. 

“It’s not difficult to do a really aggressive store rollout policy, but retailers who do that have struggled. The right way is to be really disciplined around finding the right sites, working with founders, and creating a really sustainable base for a business.”