NATIONAL: Cotton On Group has set its sights on taking on fast fashion retailer Jay Jays. The Melbourne-headquartered company has restructured its Factorie brand and is preparing to roll out the new format across 30 stores nationwide by December 2009.
Factorie first launched into the market two years ago as a disposable unisex basics offering. Marketing manager Emily Checinski said it had undergone a “major facelift”, with products now targeted at the youth, street and surfwear categories. Offering clothing, footwear and accessories for girls and boys, tees will be priced at $15 and jeans from $30.
“The Factorie model was originally based around that of [UK high street giant] Primark with basic ranges available to customers on a mammoth scale,” Checinski said. “But this wasn’t and isn’t really appropriate to the Australian market at the moment. We looked at the main customers to Factorie, melted it down and saw it as a direct competitor to Jay Jays.”
Checinski said 100 Factorie stores were scheduled to be in operation by 2016. Five new stores have already opened across New South Wales and Victoria, with recently launched sites including Penrith (Sydney) and World Square (Sydney CBD).
This is part of a broader strategy by Cotton On Group – which owns and operates Cotton On, Cotton On Kids, Cotton On Body and Rubi Footwear – to helm 2016 domestic and international stores within the next seven years. The company currently operates 510 stores in total, with 61 stores based internationally.
“We’re planning to grow the company through a mixture of acquiring new brands and launching our own retail concepts,” Checinski said.
This includes the launch of a stationery retail chain later this year dubbed Typo. Similar to the Kikki K business model, Typo will offer trend-driven stationery products such as note pads, pens and markers at a value price.
Checinski said Cotton On Group has also just acquired a higher end fashion business based in Australia, but declined to reveal its name because it was “not one that the market associates with Cotton On”.
Jay Jays currently has over 212 stores in Australia, 38 in New Zealand, 40 in South Africa and is targeted at teens aged 16 to 18-years-old.