Sydney-based Georgini will open a new flagship store in Westfield’s Parramatta shopping centre next month. It’s the company’s second flagship store after becoming a foundation tenant of the high-profile Westfield centre in Pitt Street, which opened in 2010.
Georgini managing director Gina Kougias said, “Westfield approached us to open a new store [at Parramatta] in a nice location and with an attractive rental rate.”
She explained that the brand considered the approach carefully after one its retailers in the shopping centre closed its doors. “It was around the time one of our good stockists decided to close his business at Parramatta and become a wholesaler, so we took the opportunity to launch a second Georgini branded store.”
Kougias said that company stores are a marketing exercise to showcase the brand, and that there are a lot of advantages to brand-only stores including some unexpected results.
“The Pitt St store has done well since opening. It’s been an ideal way for us to showcase the brand and we’ve even had international interest from overseas jewellery retailers visiting Sydney wanting to stock the product because of the flagship store. So it’s a valuable marketing exercise,” she said.
Kougias conceded that suppliers who operate retail outlets can open themselves up to criticism from their retail stockists but she said that when the Pitt Street store was launched there was little backlash.
“We only ever had one stockist complain about the flagship store opening but everyone else was supportive and understood our reasoning and why it was a good thing for the brand. It [flagship store] elevated us to another level by being in such a prestigious centre,” she explained.
While Georgini was launched in 2004 and quickly expanded reaching 350 stockists in Australia and New Zealand, Kougias said that in more recent times she has focused on international expansion.
“Two months ago we appointed WA Dennis as our new distributor for New Zealand and just two weeks ago we finalised a UK distribution agreement with
N. Vogel & Sons, a second generation family business so Georgini will soon start to appear in British jewellery stores,” Kougias said.
“That’s our second major international expansion outside of Australasia,” Kougias explained, “because we entered the South African market last October and we are doing very well there.”
She said over 60 accounts had been opened in South Africa is less than 12 months.
Swarovski
In other news, Kougias said that there’s a distinct possibility of Georgini collaborating with Swarovski next year.
“We were pleasantly surprised to be approached by Swarovski at the Sydney fair. We weren’t aware at the time that their international representatives were attending the fair and after viewing our range they approached us to consider working with Swarovski.
“They believe our designs could be a good match for a co-branded collection, so we are starting to discuss the possibility for 2013. Who knows, we could have a Georgini/Swarovski range ready in time for next year’s Sydney fair,” Kougias said.
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