Getting to Gripps with Queensland

The success of Gripp Jeans' first Queensland venture has triggered a dramatic retail expansion into the state on the back of the brand's recently initiated revamp.
Gripp managing director Jim Costi said the Melbourne retailer and wholesaler's newly-opened outlet in Queensland's Pacific Fair shopping centre had "taken off beyond all expectations".
The result has prompted the label to open several more stores in the state; at Carindale, Indooroopilly and Chermside, as well as a fourth Melbourne store. Costi said the new stores will be up and running before the year is out.
"The Pacific Fair store has proved to be a real drawcard for shoppers. Since we opened we've had other centres approaching us. Consumers have really fallen in love with the label."
Costi said Gripp had been enhanced by the recent introduction of more sophisticated styling and the use of higher quality fabrics.
In addition its collection - consisting of four ranges a year - had expanded by around 40 per cent.
"Gripp isn't just about jeans anymore. It's about providing a whole wardrobe including dresses, knits and blouses, you name it."
He attributed success in Queensland and Melbourne to a strategy of targeting the "mass prestige" or "masstige" consumer with luxury styling at an affordable price tag.
"Our offer is sophisticated without the huge price points. Women can "We're still young but we're certainly not at the bottom of the market; on the other hand we're not Sass & Bide."
Gripp had produced menswear in the past, but while there was "great potential" in the menswear market, plans to develop that side of the business had been put on hold.
Furthermore, the company - which wholesales to Myer and around 50 stockists nationally - would not consider further interstate or overseas expansion until it had fine tuned its womenswear wholesale and retail business, Costi said.
"I've learned a lot from what an old ragtrader once said to me, that 'it's better to look after your back yard before leaping into the paddock'."