SYDNEY: Harrolds is set to make a raft of changes to its Sydney operations, continuing in its bid to capture a broader client base and shake off its conservative image.
From mid-November, the luxury menswear retailer will be the exclusive Australian stockist of Yves Saint Laurent (YSL) menswear. Other labels which have been added to Harrolds’s 2009 ‘Modern Luxury’ catalogue as part of the overhaul include Tom Ford and Marc Jacobs.
National sales manager Brent Craggs said the changes were part of a broader plan to tailor its product mix to generations X and Y, as well as address a strong niche in the Sydney market.
Harrolds currently operates two stores in Melbourne and has one site in Sydney.
“While the two cities are both very closely aligned, Sydney has, I think, the third largest gay population in the world ... [yet] we have always been seen as being a little classic for their styling.”
The new YSL range will be stocked in accordance with European seasons and pieces will be dropped into store three to four times a year. While room for the new collection is being made by reducing diffusion offerings from brands such as John Richmond jeans and McQ Alexander McQueen, the YSL collection will feature even more prominently when the retailer moves to a new Sydney site next year.
“We have decided that we have to think that we are not just a Melbourne-based company, we are a national company, and we learnt a very long time ago that you can’t make Melbourne Sydney, or Sydney Melbourne,” Craggs said.
“Therefore, we are going to make a completely different store that is Sydney-specific, which will be a direct competitor with our flagship boutique.”
The exodus of professionals from Harrolds’s current location in Martin Place is a major impetus for the move to Pitt Street Mall, he said.
“Martin Place is not a shopping precinct in any way or form. It has changed ... the banking sector has moved down to Darling Harbour and also out to Homebush. We have a real issue where we don’t get weekend trade and we don’t get evening trade. So moving two blocks is like moving to another part of the city completely.”
Harrolds’s new site will be in Westfield Sydney, a large-scale shopping complex that is currently under construction. The new store will run over two levels and will allow for “two different feels within the one shopping environment”, Craggs said.
“We need to be within an environment where we are surrounded by similar minded retailers and also international labels, which allows the opportunity for, say, a husband and wife to shop in the same area and be within a short distance of each other.
“Most importantly for us, we really want to get seven days a week trade and we want to also get a larger scope of clients which we haven’t catered for or haven’t been able to bring into our store in the past.”
Craggs believes the new site will add to Harrolds’s profitability.
“Sydney as a store has always had a higher turnover per square metre than any of our Melbourne boutiques. It’s a stronger market. We know that when we open the new store in Sydney we will be doing more turnover as a business ... simply because of more international trade, more people, more businessmen, and Sydney is fairly fashion savvy when it comes to modern luxury.”
Harrolds’s Westfield Sydney store is scheduled to open in November 2010.
Erin O’Loughlin