New Zealand-born retailer Michael Hill is preparing to have 80-100 Bevilles stores opened by FY28, alongside a single-digit collection of stores for its soon-to-be-launched high-end TenSevenSeven brand.
Michael Hill acquired Bevilles for $44.6 million earlier this year, which currently operates 26 stores across Australia.
TenSevenSeven is expected to be launched across Australia in early October, with plans to open its first showroom in the country in the second half of FY24.
Speaking on Bevilles' store rollout last week at an investor presentation, Michael Hill CEO Daniel Bracken confirmed three new sites have already been secured, with another three close to finalisation for pre-Christmas opening.
Bracken said the focus is on new real estate, with no flipping of Michael Hill branded stores on the cards in the near future.
“We want to understand the opportunity in the market across each of our major landlord partners as to what real estate's available, what sort of deals might we be able to secure,” Bracken said. “We're very happy with the first three that we've secured.
“We have got favourable terms from the landlords on each occasion as we had hoped for.”
Bracken said the roll-out of stores in the second half of FY24 will be dictated by what commercial real estate is available, with six on the cards for the period. Overall, Michael Hill expects to open 10-15 new Bevilles stores every financial year, with an aim to have 80-100 by FY28.
All Bevilles staff will be retained and transitioned, with further plans to rapidly expand lab-grown diamonds, update value-added service offerings such as repairs and care plans, and grow its third-party brand offerings.
Michael Hill is also expecting to open its first TenSevenSeven showroom in the second half of FY24 in Australia, with another two or three in the future alongside expansion into New Zealand and Canada - Michael Hill’s other key markets.
TenSevenSeven store locations will be focused inside capital cities.
Bracken said Michael Hill studied the higher-end sector of the jewellery market prior to building the new brand.
“We are very deep in the knowledge of all the global players in this category,” Bracken said. “What we’ve certainly seen is they are much more productive and much higher volume when you supplement the digital proposition with a physical showroom. We're certainly looking to get one of those up in the second half of this financial year.”
According to Bracken, the initial launch will be soft as the company tests the market, with no marketing spend being pushed into the brand. The initial phase will include communicating with its top-tier Brilliance by Michael Hill members and their potential interest in the brand, with the aim to have it up and running and tested end-to-end by Christmas.
TenSevenSeven will bring significantly higher price points, with the expected average transaction value being between $5,000 and $8,000 and some products being over $100,000.
“It'll be driven by the price of the selection for diamond obviously that the consumer chooses to make, and very much going toe-to-toe with some of those luxury brands in the space.”