Bonds is eyeing a larger slice of the retail market, with plans to roll out more Bonds Kids concept stores this year. The first Bonds Kids store opened in September at Westfield Doncaster in Melbourne. Bonds Kids is the brand’s first foray into the childrenswear category, having previously only sold babywear for newborns. The junior format follows the successful launch of the first Bonds adult store, which opened in May 2012, also at Westfield Doncaster. Over the past 18 months the Paci
ific Brands- owned company has grown its store network to 17 adult stores nationwide.
It will open three more Kids stores by mid-2014.
The second Kids site will open at Melbourne’s Highpoint Shopping Centre next month, followed by a third store in Adelaide’s newly renovated West Lakes Shopping Centre.
The first Kids store outside of a shopping centre is scheduled to open at Brighton in Melbourne in April.
Belinda Barlow, GM retail, underwear group at Pacific Brands, told Inside Retail PREMIUM the move into bricks and mortar is a logical progression for the company.
“The feedback has been really positive,” Barlow said of the label’s retail debut.
“Customers seem to be very surprised to see Bonds in a store format. Customers are also surprised to see a product range that goes up to a children’s size seven because previously Bonds had only ever catered for adults and babies.”
Barlow says growing the retail network allows the brand to show its entire range as well as trial potential apparel lines.
“It gives us another dimension. We have a lot of product categories that aren’t stocked by our wholesalers so it gives us the opportunity to be able to showcase the entire Bonds range to the marketplace.
“Now that there’s more confidence [in the market] we’re trying new things. In December we developed a sleepwear range, which is a completely new market for Bonds.”
Bonds will roll out more adult stores throughout 2014, however, numbers are yet to confirmed.
“We’re planning to open more of both concepts. We don’t know the exact number yet, we’ll just see how we go. We want to wait and see how they are received and how the market accepts the concept.
“We still have a couple of stores in the pipeline, but we’re just taking it one day at a time for now.”
Like Westfield Doncaster, the Highpoint store will house both the Bonds adult and Bonds Kids concepts, but Barlow says operating both stores under one roof will not work for all centres.
“It’s quite an opportunity for us to take kids and babies out and make it its own concept, but I wouldn’t say this will be the case in all the centres, it will depend on the size of the store and if the real estate is available.”
