ing many of its existing customers. Then, it expanded its apparel offering and direct-to-consumer presence in an effort to drive growth.  But now, it appears to be returning to its roots. Just over a year after Seafolly Group bought Tigerlily out of administration, the brand has relaunched online and in Myer stores with a tighter product range, a focus on archival prints and a slightly lower pricepoint.  “We’re going back to what we believe is the heart of Tigerlily,” Prue Slocombe, the brand’s general manager, told Inside Retail.  “There have been a lot of different iterations of the brand, and there have been a lot of different takes on it, but we’re trying to look at where the real heart of the brand is.”  Tapping into economies of scale Together with the brand’s creative director Simone Coates, Slocombe spent the past year diving into the data and speaking with customers, stockists and partners to understand what needed to change.  “I think we were both delighted at how strong the brand resonance was and how well it was received in the market,” Slocombe said.  Where they saw room for improvement was in the backend. They realised they could reduce costs by leveraging Seafolly Group’s existing sourcing, warehousing and e-commerce operations, while maintaining their own marketing and design team in Melbourne.  “There are so many innovations in that space, it makes sense for us to apply those across the group, and share resources and headcount,” Slocombe said.  Seafolly Group also owns the Australian swimwear brands Seafolly and Jets. It reportedly paid $2.3 million, plus a third‑party contribution of around $750,000, to buy Tigerlily from private-equity firm Crescent Capital Partners through a deed of company arrangement. Crescent itself paid Billabong $60 million to acquire the brand in 2017, and Billabong bought it from Meares for $5.8 million in 2007. Finding the heart of the brand Rather than dwelling on the missteps that previous leadership teams may have made, Slocombe said she and Coates were more concerned with the brand’s future.  “The last 10 years of retail have had a lot of ups and downs across the entire industry, and one of the learnings we’ve taken from that is that, first and foremost, we really need to make sure we’ve got a customer focus for everything that we’re doing,” she said.  Tigerlily used to be “one of those brands that you could look at a girl on the beach and go, ‘She’s wearing a Tigerlily swimsuit.’ You just knew, because it had such a strong brand positioning,” she said.  “It lived and breathed that, not just in its prints and its aesthetic, but in every touchpoint of the brand. That’s what we’re trying to refocus on, and on who our girl is, because it’s so easy to try and be everything to everyone in this market.”  That’s why Slocombe and Coates decided to launch with a smaller product range to ensure that every piece feels “authentically Tigerlily”.  “We aren’t launching with footwear and a few other categories. We don’t feel, right now, that’s where the heart of the brand is,” Slocombe said. The move to reduce prices was also made with the customer in mind, with triangle bikini tops now available for $69. “When we inherited the brand, it was at the entry level to the premium market, but some of the apparel was quite significantly higher, and we tried to bring that down,” she said.  “At the moment, the cost of living is key for Australians and people around the globe, so we’re trying to cap our apparel at around $250 and our one-pieces at around $150, while still maintaining the quality and detailing that makes it so uniquely Tigerlily.” Putting the A-team back together  Before taking on Tigerlily, Slocombe and Coates previously worked together at Brand Collective, where they were responsible for transforming the Mossimo business in Australia. They relaunched the apparel brand in Target, turning it into a $27 million operation.  At the time, Mossimo was part of Brand Collective’s Designworks division led by Brendan Santamaria. He left Designworks to take up the CEO role at Seafolly in May 2020, and Slocombe and Coates followed him across in 2022 and 2023, respectively.  “We put the A-team back together,” Coates said. Time will tell if they can repeat their past success with Tigerlily.  Slocombe hinted at some exciting collaborations and partnerships in the works, and said there are plans to relaunch several strong heritage prints in the brand’s upcoming summer range.  Longer term, Tigerlily may even reopen stand-alone stores, though Slocombe said she wants to make sure they have the product and positioning completely right first.