Premier Retail has revealed the impact of lockdowns on its workwear brands Jacqui E and Portmans.
In its FY21 presentation, the business revealed that while both brands delivered sales growth in FY21, they both continue to be impacted by a lack of workers in CBD areas across the country.
According to research by Roy Morgan and UberMedia conducted in May, showed that movement in the CBDs of locked-down cities of Melbourne and Sydney has consistently sat below 60% of the movement in a comparable period in 2020.
Source: Roy Morgan collaboration with UberMedia who provide anonymous aggregated insights using mobile location data.
Meanwhile, Google Movement Data from September shows that movement in the Melbourne and Sydney CBDs remains down, with visits to retail and recreation down 78% and 77% respectively.
Source: Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Report
Speaking on how the brands performed with reduced traffic, Premier Retail said that while they were impacted, Portmans and Jacqui E still delivered strong results.
"While Jacqui E continues to be significantly impacted by the temporary exodus of workers from CBD areas during the COVID-19 health crisis, the FY21 sales growth demonstrates the long term strength of the brand.
"In regions living with easing COVID-19 social distancing restrictions, Jacqui E sales were significantly stronger.
"Meanwhile, Portmans has an extremely strong and distinctive market position and is well positioned for future growth, particularly looking beyond the current temporary exodus of workers from CBD areas," the business said in a statement.
During FY21, Portmans delivered record sales of $141.7 million, up $36.5 million or 34.6% on FY20, underpinned by strong like-for-like growth both in stores and online.
Jacqui E also reported an increase in sales during the period, lifting 13.6% to $70.1 million, in FY21.
Source: Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Report