Apparel and footwear retail companies Brand Collective and PAS Group are to merge, creating Australia’s third-largest fashion retail group. 

The deal, effective April 26, will aggregate 26 brands and 15 character licences, operate in 300 retail locations across Australia and New Zealand and employ 3000 staff. The company will also run some 250 wholesale accounts both locally and internationally. 

Trading under the Brand Collective banner, the business will boast revenue exceeding $600 million.

The newly combined Brand Collective is in the top three retailers in Australia with combined revenue of more than $600 million generated from its 26 brands and 15 character licences. 

The portfolio of brands will include Clarks, Hush Puppies, Shoes & Sox, Superdry, Replay, Review, Black Pepper, Yarra Trail, Everlast, Lonsdale, Julius Marlow, Grosby, Mossimo, Marco Polo, and Volley. 

The Brand Collective headquarters will relocate from Port Melbourne to Cremorne where PAS Group is currently located, the two businesses consolidating in one location in “campus-style” premises. 

Eric Morris will be CEO and Lisa Shalem, previously GM at Shoes & Sox, will assume the role of executive GM of the footwear division. 

Inside Retail understands that Brand Collective’s existing CEO Caleb Brown will be leaving the business. 

Larry Kestelman, of Brand Collective parent LK Group, said the merger would allow the group’s brands to continue to grow and “achieve their full potential”. 

Morris said the company’s Designworks division supplies products to department stores and discount department stores, while Shoes & Sox is the leading children’s footwear retailer in Australia, dominating the children’s footwear category in Myer. Brand Collective plans to expand the Shoe Warehouse network. 

“We will be working hard to grow the business through both continued organic growth and complementary acquisitions.”