tail, he discussed how CBCH and TDE are rebounding following collapse, as well as his plans to expand in the years to come. Colette by Colette Hayman Marquee Retail Group acquired CBCH, a fashion accessories and jewellery brand, out of administration in September 2020. Brookes told Inside Retail that, following the purchase, CBCH scaled back its operations from 120 to 35 stores, and reduced its stock levels. However, since then, Brookes has worked to rebuild the brand. It has opened 22 more stores – bringing the total today to 57 – and placed a strong emphasis on correcting the product range, pricing and promotional strategy. Brookes said that CBCH is now “doing tens of millions of dollars in business,” and has expanded from 280 staff members to over 600. He added that the business recently committed to a new store in Brisbane’s domestic airport, with seven new stores to come over the next few months. This is in addition to a New Zealand store, which will be formalised over the next few months. “We’ve done all the things we should be doing in this environment. We’ve tried to be smart with our forward buying, we’ve [put] a lid on costs, and are making sure that we’re promoting a value offer. We’re also [continuing to] invest,” he said. “This is our opportunity to gain market share and expand the brand while everyone else battens down the hatches. Our role will be to open new stores, push new markets and ranges and promote aggressively.” He added that CBCH recently attained PETA approval – which could make it more appealing to certain segments – and is working on a collaboration with the Matildas, Australia’s women’s football team, ahead of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. This, he said, has been performing exceptionally well, and exceeding expectations. “[The collaboration] showed us that we can do more affiliation with designers and events,” he said. The Daily Edited Brookes also spearheaded the acquisition of TDE – a luxury fashion and accessories brand specialising in personalisation and monogramming – in December 2022, following its collapse. He noted that the brand had a strong e-commerce presence as well as an overseas store network, but was facing cash flow problems. It was also underrepresented in Australia, with just one bricks-and-mortar store in Sydney. Brookes said that the business cleared all of its old stock with a big warehouse sale earlier this year. “It really was a business that needed to be rebuilt and expanded,” he said.  “We’re still in that immature stage where we have to get the stock, marketing and promotional program right, and we’re starting to do that.” The goal, he said, is to add half a dozen new stores with at least one in each state, with products at each store available to be personalised and monogrammed in person. “TDE is still in the early stage and we’re happy that we have fresh stock arriving,” he said. “Our plan is to build a local, online business. Then [we can] build the international side of it, open half a dozen flagship stores and look at concessions in other outlets like department stores and inside airports. “It was doing over $20 million before it went into administration, so we plan to build it back up over the next few years.” Plans moving forward Over the next few years, Brookes plans to continue growing CBCH, rebuild TDE and gradually look for acquisitions to fit under the Marquee Retail Group umbrella. He said that acquisition targets would likely be small- to medium-sized companies, with ownership divided between Brookes and Marquee’s co-CEOs Marianne Jones and Anthony Coehlo, as well as other senior team members. While the group has done its due diligence on acquisition targets, he said that it hasn’t made any official moves since the acquisition of TDE in 2022. “We’re not in any hurry [as] we think there’ll be quite a few businesses available over the next few months as the market tightens,” he said. “People are looking for better prices and are reducing their spending. That will impact a lot of businesses. It sounds a bit ogrish, but we’ll be looking for good brands that we can build similarly to what we’ve done with TDE and CBCH. “We’ll add a third or fourth brand into the Marquee Retail Group, but there’s no great hurry to do that.” Accessories businesses will be the major focus moving forward, however, Brookes said he would also consider low-risk fashion and homewares brands.  He added that businesses with a strong online presence – and some brand recognition – will also be a priority. “We’ll wait for the right opportunity to come over the next few years,” he said. “We have to be careful not to swallow the elephant in one gulp.” The right time to expand Brookes cited his history in the retail industry as the explanation for his aggressive expansionary strategy, and noted that the late 1980s and Global Financial Crisis provide useful precedents for the current situation. “If you look back at both those times, the companies that invested heavily in value for the customer, and continued to aggressively promote and expand their businesses through new stores, not only came out [in] a much better position. They also grew a lot faster, as the tailwinds got easier,” he said. “You don’t have to go far to get the history lesson of what happens when retail goes into a period of recession. There are those that [cut] costs significantly, run reduced marketing expenditure or stop new store and website development. They end up getting a self-fulfilling prophecy of what they deserve.” With reduced consumer spending, he believes that now is the time to invest heavily in growing and expanding market share. “It’s getting people to buy bags and jewellery from you rather than your competitors,” he said. Brookes added that – outside of premium and luxury retail – consumers are predominantly chasing value, and looking to trade down from the middle market. This is set to intensify further, as cost-of-living pressures intensify. “You can get a very good quality bag made of polyurethane at Colette – that for all intents and purposes looks good as a [$300] leather bag – for $60. I think that’s where customers will go,” he said. “We’re making sure we’ve got good value, are active in social media and general marketing, and are investing in new stores and countries like New Zealand to expand the business.  “I call it swimming against the tide.” Future plans Fast forwarding a few years, Brookes believes that CBCH could have another 15 stores to its portfolio, while TDE could have another three to four stores.  He believes there is an opportunity to expand into other types of accessories and launch additional ranges as a means of utilising more floor space. “We’ll be sweating the asset harder by expanding the range, as well as the number of stores and building our website,” he said. Brookes said that there are no plans to fix then sell the brands under Marquee Retail Group. Rather, the intention is to build a strong and ongoing business with multiple brands. “We want to make this a significant business,” he said. “We have the first two blocks in place [with CBCH and TDE] and we’ll continue to build more businesses going forward.”