er Retail brands was apparently sufficient to temper Lew’s criticism of the Myer results for the half, which were better than in recent reporting periods but hardly anything to write home about. Lew appears to be giving a restructured management team at Myer some grace, allowing them to see if they can stabilise the department store chain and develop a sustainable growth plan that might allow him to recoup some of his losses on the 11 per cent stake he acquired in March 2017. Gaining some street cred One of the stumbling blocks to Lew in his attempts to revamp the Myer board of directors and management was the fact his own fashion brands in the Premier Retail portfolio have not consistently posted solid gains in revenue and earnings. The institutional investors he was trying to persuade to effect changes in the leadership of the struggling Myer business judged that Lew didn’t seem to have all the answers, given how his own apparel chains were muddling along, especially Jay Jays and Just Jeans. Premier Retail’s revenue and earnings growth were substantially being driven by the international expansion of Smiggle and steady growth in Peter Alexander. While one swallow may not make a spring, the across-the-board results for Premier Retail for the latest half were encouraging, given the continuing challenging retail market. In the latest half, Premier Retail’s fashion brands posted a 7.5 per cent lift in sales with like-for-like growth of 8.8 per cent. Just Jeans lifted sales by 14.3 per cent and Jay Jays by 7.2 per cent – growth figures that hark back to happier times for the iconic jeans brands – without expansion of the store network. Portmans also recorded a promising first half, with a 5.8 per cent increase in sales and like-for-like growth of 9.5 per cent with the same store numbers. Jacquie E recorded a 1.6 per cent sales lift, while Dotti only bettered FY18 first-half sales by 0.3 per cent, albeit with a more encouraging 2.17 per cent gain for the second quarter. Lew has apparently reached better deals on retail leases as his threats to close a significant number of shopping mall and strip centre locations has not resulted in a contraction of the store network. However, Lew and Premier Retail CEO Mark McInnes have maintained the threat that they will close unprofitable stores where the expectations of the landlords on rents are “unrealistic”. Premier Retail is now generating almost 13 per cent of market revenue from online sales platforms after increasing revenue 35.2 per cent in the latest half in countries where it has transaction websites. That growth percentage is certain to rise in the second half with the launch of transactional websites in New Zealand for Smiggle, Just Jeans and Jacqui E. The performance of Lew’s apparel brands is significant as growth for the Smiggle chain has slowed somewhat, although the distinctive retail chain continues to build sales and contribute to earnings growth. Smiggle on the rise Smiggle added just nine new stores in the latest half and relied on a 34.8 per cent increase in sales in its 51 Asian stores to underpin an $8 million increase in revenues compared to the comparable period in FY18. Premier Retail believes Smiggle can continue to expand globally through its online platforms, new store openings in markets in which it already has a presence, concession outlets and entry into new markets. Premier Retail has struck a deal to launch the brand in Canada this year and is developing a wholesale business that will initially spearhead growth in Asia and the Middle East with an expected 100 new doors opening from July onwards. The wholesale division will take the brand into five new countries – South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and the United Arab Emirates. The Smiggle success story continues, but Lew would be very pleased to see some renewed life in his fashion brands and a slight flicker of life in Myer.