Flower Clothing looks set for thorn-free expansion
Flower Clothing, which opened its doors to the suburb of Cottesloe in 2001, is currently in the first stages of an aggressive national expansion plan. Managing director Chris Hoffman said the company is looking to exploit its established success in the Western Australian marketplace by branching out.
With three store openings already underway in Queensland - and negotiations set for more - it is understood that Flower Clothing conducted substantial market research before pioneering its launch into the sunshine state.
"We concluded that there was great synergy between Queensland and Western Australia. The lifestyle, climate and attitude to colour and clothing are very similar."
Unleashing its first interstate site at Gold Coast's Pacific Fair in September, the company has also scheduled two further openings at Westfield Chermside in October and Garden City in December. It is also in negotiations for further sites in Carindale and Indooroopilly shopping centres.
In order to combat the growing challenge behind "recreating the Flower sales culture in other states", Hoffman said Flower Clothing would look to emphasis greater training and development for new employees.
"Our sales training program seeks to develop a competitive edge by creating a sales team with some real people skills. We look at the underlying psychology that creates positive and negative impressions when meeting and interacting with new people."
Targeting women aged 32 to 48, the company identifies its core consumer as a fashion devotee whose style is primarily driven by lifestyle factors such as family, community, children and weekend activities. By catering for the older demographic, Hoffman said Flower Clothing had found a niche position in a youth-cluttered market.
"In terms of competition, the department stores are our prime adversaries. [But] our customer is a reluctant department store visitor with the lack of personal service and mediocre merchandising; giving Flower two important points of competitive advantage."
Hoffman also cites manufacturing resources in China - which enable the company to work on a consistent production cycle of four to five weeks - as giving the company a two-fold advantage.
"Firstly that decisions relating to new product are made very close to the season and are therefore more accurate and secondly our ability to redeliver a winning style in this quick timeframe enables us to take full advantage of any volume style."
Flower Clothing's next opening is scheduled for later this month.