Last week lingerie retailer, Bras N Things, opened two stores in South Africa, its first locations outside of Australia and New Zealand in the company’s 25-year history. “We identified a gap in the market in terms of speciality bra fitting and felt South Africa provided enormous opportunity for a specialist retailer like Bras N Things,” George Wahby, CEO, Bras N Things, told Inside Retail Weekly. “Our seasons also coincide, which enables us to align our core products across both countrie
es whilst reviewing and diversifying our range to cater to the local market.”
Located at Clearwater Mall in Johannesburg, and Woodlands Boulevard in Pretoria, the new stores will reflect Bras N Things’ revitalised brand direction with a modern, sleek design and will be managed by local teams trained to ensure the brand’s fitting expertise carries into the global market.
“We’ve taken a localised approach to South Africa and are actively empowering the local team by investing in their education and training to enable them to provide the same specialist fitting service that Bras N Things is known for in Australia,” Wahby said.
“Over 90 per cent of women who have been fitted by our fit experts at Clearwater were wearing the wrong sized bra. This clearly illustrates the need for a specialist fitting service like ours. Wearing the correct size bra for the first time is life changing for many of these women and their reaction is something we are very excited about.”
Wahby said the brand is focused on solidifying its position in the market with the initial two stores, with a local e-commerce launch on the agenda in the near future.
Bras N Things, which currently operates 170 stores in Australia and New Zealand, has plans to accelerate growth globally in the coming years.
“Further global expansion is certainly a key goal for the business, but we will be taking this one step at a time with a tailored approach to reaching different countries suited to the Bras N Things brand according to market demand,” Wahby said.
Bras N Things is part of the Brett Blundy led BB Retail Capital (BBRC) Group, which also holds a stake in ASX-listed jewellery chain, Lovisa. Through a combination of acquisitions and store openings, Lovisa operates 33 stores in South Africa. As of December 27 2015, Lovisa had 82 company-owned stores outside of Australia, which accounted for 34 per cent of the group’s revenue in H1 FY2016.
“One of the advantages of being part of the BBRC Group is that we are able to share our experiences across brands and have taken a lot of learnings from Lovisa, which is the market leader within their category in South Africa,” Wahby said.
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