SYDNEY: Womenswear retailer Events has celebrated 35 years in business by revealing it has conquered the “identity crisis” which plagued its ownership restructure.
Founded by twin brothers James and Ray Pillion in the late 1970s, Events was synonymous for its power dress silhouettes of the 1980s and adaptation of the jersey wrap dress for the 1990s.
The company is now privately owned by businessman Fred Bart, with 30 retail stores and representation in David Jones department stores nationwide.
Events CEO Alan Radomsky said these developments were a sharp contrast to 2005, when the company was sold off by its original owners and rationalised to 21 stores. As recently as 2008, the brand was available at just 10 David Jones stores nationwide.
Radomsky said the label had lost ground against “itself and the competition” at the time of its sale.
“The Pillion brothers did exceptionally well with and out of Events,” Radomsky said. “However, by the time 2005 rolled along, the decline in the business up until this point made it saleable to those who were willing to breathe new life into the tiring brand.
“When a label has reached the mature stage of its lifecycle, the reinvention process can lead to disaster.
“This is what the new ownership inherited [and] what followed was an identity crisis. The business is now heading in the right direction and on the path to better days.”
Radomsky admitted the brand played it “very safe” following the restructure, focusing on trends and collections which reflected its peak years.
“This stabilised the ship but did not allow for exponential growth as the customer base had thinned out through attrition,” he recalled. “This ‘safe’ approach was not going to cut through the extremely over-traded market in which we exist [but] nor did we wish to move too far too quickly and thereby sacrifice our existing customer base.
“We have now better aligned our offer and are comfortable with the ‘classic styling with a fashion edge’ approach to our collection.”
Events is now a destination for social occasion and eveningwear, with a younger slant to the 40 to 45-year-old pigeonhole the company found itself in, Radomsky said. The brand has also phased out a capsule casualwear component that was offered up to the time of its restructure.
“We have narrowed some of our merchandise offer as we gain more confidence in what our customer is after,” he said. “There is less ‘hedging’ with proliferated styling. We have also focused our offer to a ‘desk to dinner’ and ‘special occasion’ ranges. Our customers are still spoilt for choice, however, and there is no visible reduction in the number of SKUs produced; we are producing more units per style than we did four or five seasons back.”
Radomsky said ranging was no longer in the hands of a single designer or product developer, with a collaborative approach across the creative departments.
Head office staff had been slightly rationalised since 2005 but the net number of employees has increased to 160 active staff. General price points have also remained consistent over the last 10 seasons, with the brand committed to manufacturing offshore in order to maintain margins.
“With 30 stores we cannot achieve the combined sales volume that would allow us to lighten up on our profit margins and produce locally,” he said. “It is unfortunate for local industry but essential to be competitive in the market in which we operate.”
The company has partnered with landlords to push the next stage of retail expansion. Events recently opened a new site in Top Ryde City (Sydney) and is set to commence fitting out a concept store at Robina Town Centre on the Gold Coast.
Further openings are expected in Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide, where the brand has just two stores in each city. Radomsky admitted there are still challenges ahead in achieving organic growth for Events.
“There are difficulties with upward pressure on wages due to [changes in the national workplace relations system], the CPI-plus increases that landlords enjoy and the continued discounting in the marketplace. To outstrip that with organic growth is a tough ask in the current retail climate [but] the business is now heading in the right direction and on the path to better days.”
Assia Benmedjdoub