Stationery retailer Kikki.K will take the next step in its ambitious international expansion this week with the launch of wholesale operations in the Philippines, just a week after launching in the Middle East. The deal, struck with a national book retailer, will see Kikki.K’s products stocked in 13 locations nationwide, nearly doubling its presence in the Southeast Asian market. It’s part of a broader international play being undertaken by chief executive Iain Nairn that’s seeing wholes
sale deals with international retailers pave the way for bricks-and-mortar expansion.
In the last few years Kikki.K has inked deals with Nordstrom in the US and John Lewis, Selfridges, Fortum & Mason and Harrods in the UK. Most recently, it signed onto sell on Dubai-based e-commerce platform, Namshi.
Wholesale expansion has coincided with the launch of five standalone stores in the UK, five in Hong Kong, two in Singapore and eight in New Zealand – bringing its total store network to over 100 when Australia is included.
According to Nairn, a former David Jones CEO, the last 12 months have been significant for the business, which now reaches 20 million customers around the world.
“The last year has been transformational because we [sold] more, and engaged with more people online or through partners than we did through our own stores,” he told IRW.
Kikki.K, which originally launched its line of Swedish designed stationery in Melbourne in 2001, now sells online to more than 140 countries globally and has benefitted from international marketing activities, bringing new customers onto its platform.
Alongside products, Nairn is also making education a key export of the business, setting up a workshop programme as a potential growth vertical for Kikki.K’s digital platform in the coming years. Open to customers, the in-store workshops cover lifestyle topics such as preparing for Christmas, mindfulness and organisation.
“We run a workshop program in Australia where we have the most stores, but we actually believe there’s a digital solution that could bring our purpose to life and actually educate people on how to work with our products,” Nairn explained.
The ongoing expansion has come with in-kind investment, but Nairn said the business is benefitting from long-term shareholders, including its largest stakeholder TDM management, who bought a 20 per cent stake in the business last year.
Kikki.K’s founder, Kristina Karlsson, has been touring the US this year, building brand awareness for the company after spending time in the UK overseeing on-the-ground marketing.
Nairn said an international marketing push predicated on content would be a key differentiator for Kikki.K’s products overseas in the coming years, as it looks to catch up to other Australian-based stationery brands increasing its global presence.
Solomon Lew’s Premier Investments has been investing heavily in the international presence of its own stationery brand Smiggle, charting more than 100 international stores in the next two years after opening more than 100 in the UK since 2015.
Cotton On Group’s Typo brand has just started expanding into the UK with a flagship store in London. It has already opened more than 30 stores in Southeast Asia and 14 in the Middle East.