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It was the €70 (euro) purchase that allowed Lovisa to enter six new European markets. 

The retailer's acquisition of the Beeline business, saw it enter Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Luxembourg this year, while its French store rollout was accelerated. 

Since the purchase, Lovisa has converted 87 of Beeline's 114 stores to Lovisa, with the rest exited at or around the time of handover. 

To support the larger European business, Lovisa opened a new European support office in Cologne, Germany and has a new 3PL warehouse in Poland to support store replenishment. 

Meanwhile, the business also launched local eCommerce sites to support the physical stores, in local currencies and languages. 

And while the trading in the new stores have been hampered by COVID disruptions across Europe, Lovisa remains excited about the global expansion. 

"Handover of stores began in early March 2021 and were completed by early May 2021, however most market openings were delayed due to COVID lockdowns," Lovisa said in a statement. 

"Early trading was impacted by lockdowns and trading restrictions however more recent performance is pleasing. 

"The acquisition provides a strong base to accelerate growth in Europe and we are excited by the opportunity this provides us to expand into a number of new markets at pace," the business said. 

In the first eight weeks of FY22, Lovisa has seen strong performance in markets that have eased restrictions. 

So far, Lovisa has recorded comparable store sales of 37.8%, while total sales are up 56% on the same period of FY21. 

However, the jewellery retailer has a number of stores closed across the globe, with 82 stores in Australia and 24 in New Zealand currently closed. 

Meanwhile, its Malaysian stores have only just recently reopened after a 10-week lockdown. 

The business also highlighted the ongoing impacts of logistics prices and COVID restrictions on its trading in FY22. 

"Cost pressures on global logistics as a result of worldwide shipping capacity constraints have continued. 

"We continue to focus on opportunities for expanding both our physical and digital store network, however physical store opening progress may be slowed in the remainder of calendar 2021 due to logistics capacity challenges in the movement of new store fitouts into our global growth markets," Lovisa said. 

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