The Daily Edited (now known as TDE) is joining Colette by Colette Hayman in owner and chairman Bernie Brookes’ newly formed Marquee Retail Group, Ragtrader can reveal.
The move comes after Brookes, who is the former CEO of Myer, became a major shareholder of TDE in December 2022 in a bid to save the company from collapse. This arose from a sale process led by advisory firm KordaMentha, with Brookes competing and winning against 12 other bidders.
Brookes said he is actively pursuing other brands to add to Marquee Retail Group, which was launched last Wednesday (March 1) at a Retail Doctor Group breakfast.
The new brands that Brookes is seeking are within handbags and accessories - including PU (polyurethane leather) accessories and leather. He added that a website for the holding group is currently under construction.
Speaking on the acquisition of TDE with Ragtrader, Brookes said it was a strategic move despite the current economic climate. TDE now joins Colette by Colette Hayman (CBCH), which was acquired by Brookes and former Myer and Woolworths executive John Skellern in September 2020 following its then collapse.
CBCH has since recovered, with now 700 employees and 57 stores.
“From a retail perspective, I've always found it to be contrarian to invest when times are tough or going to be tough - it's a smart move,” Brookes said.
“We bought the CBCH brand right at the start of COVID, and that was the time when online really excelled. You would think we were not sane in actually purchasing a bricks and mortar retail business then.”
Brookes said he plans to utilise all of the back end in his current business into TDE, which has been established through CBCH’s regrowth. This includes IT, supply chain, sourcing, office, and warehousing,
TDE will be led by two existing CEOs Marianne Jones and Anthony Coelho, who were behind the CBCH revision.
“We have a structure that's worked incredibly well, which is Marianne Jones who runs areas such as store operations, buying, marketing and planning, and Anthony Coelho who runs areas such as IT, finance, HR and online,” Brookes said.
“They will not only look after Colette, but they'll use the same intellects that they've got into TDE. At the moment, they're spending a couple of days a week in the TDE office at Alexandria, and a couple of days a week in the Colette office at Brookvale.
“That works really well to get all the synergies, and I'm very fortunate because they're both gifted people.”
Brookes said that because TDE had a “checkered” background, he and his team only bought the assets of the company and couldn’t buy it as a whole.
“We got the trading name, and we got the website, and we got all the products and we got the stores and we got the online, and the allocated distribution centre in the office, but we didn't actually buy the current business.
“So that's a good part, we can now concentrate on integrating it more into the Colette business.”
From the sale process, Brookes revealed that there was a lot of old stock which TDE hadn’t cleared, which they were privy to before the sale.
He also said he was surprised at the strength of TDE’s customer base.
“Even during the administration, there's a really good sticky customer that continued to buy.”
Brookes said the immediate plan is to stablise the TDE brand, with no changes to its monogramming, positioning and its supplier base.
“I'm going to visit all the suppliers next month, and spend some time with them in China to make sure that we've got quality well and truly assured,” Brookes said.
“Once we've got stock supply right, brand positioning right, pricing right, and consistency and quality of product, we want to do a lot of work enhancing the website. Once we've got that part right, we'll then press the accelerator button and rebuild and market the brand. So it's a two-stage approach.
“When I bought Colette, I did a similar thing, we spent the first 12 months getting the product right, improving the quality, getting the marketing right, getting all of the basics right. And then once we got a good build, I then opened another 35 stores, and then started to market the brand.
“Today, it's doing nearly four times the volume than it was doing when we first purchased it.”
Brookes said the revamp of the TDE website is important as 90% of its business is done online. However, he confirmed that the website won’t be changed to a new platform, saying he’s happy with the one it currently has.
“We want to enhance the look and feel the website, the customer friendliness, the inspiration, and we've already started to do some new photography,” Brookes said. “We’ll enhance that gradually.”
In comparison, Brookes said the CBCH’s sales are 80% in-store and 20% online.
“So they're quite complementary businesses,” he said. “We know that we've always got work to do on improving the speed of the website, the look and feel, the dwell time, the inspiration that's on it.
“We've undertaken that with Colette, and now we're undertaking it with TDE.”
Meanwhile, Brookes said there is an opportunity to open another handful of stores for TDE, particularly in CBD and premium mall locations. He said his team have already started discussions with a number of mall owners regarding TDE.
“As a general rule in retail, somewhere around three quarters of the business up to 90% of most businesses is still done in bricks and mortar,” Brookes said.
“We've got one in the QVB - that's the only store that's left. They had half a dozen. We think we can get back to comfortably another half a dozen stores over the next couple of years.”
Speaking on CBCH, Brookes said the revised brand will see a marketing relaunch later this year. The brand is currently in works with advertising agency Paper, Stone and Scissors.
“That'll include new ways going to market, a new look and feel of the brand, new signage in store, right the way through to a new ESG program, right the way through to new colors, styles, branding.
“You'll see a different brand relaunch while still keeping the important parts of the heritage of Colette by Colette Hayman.”