Ragtrader Live 2014 boasted one of the most powerful speaker lineups to date.
Ragtrader's September 2014 edition offers a full roundup of the event. Below is a preview from the ten-part roundup.
Is your role in the value chain still viable?
That was the question Brand Collective (Pacific Brands) general manager Martin Matthews posed to audience members, citing the group’s transformation from a traditional wholesaler to a licensing powerhouse via a joint venture with New York-based Iconix Brand Group.
“How can we reset our commercial relationships to survive?,” Matthews ventured.
“The example I always use is, we used to be the distributor of Diesel for a period of time.
“We couldn’t make that work for a number of reasons, but one of them was that at the core of international distribution models in Australia, there was room for a middle man.
“Consumers would bear higher prices. The prices would be 40 to 50 per cent higher than the rest of the world, which was roughly the middle man’s margin.
“Of course, over the last four to five years, that is far from fine and no consumer will bear it.“
Matthews said Brand Collective’s joint venture allows it to rationalise costs by removing a duplication in the supply chain.
“In the licensing model, the brand owner takes on brand ownership and strategy, often takes on trend direction, but doesn’t get involved in sourcing, manufacturing, sales, warehousing, distribution and so on.
"It allows retailers to effectively get access to brands with private label economics, because it cuts out that middle man margin.”
Matthews cited its recent work with Big W, via its Lee Cooper brand, as a success