Aussie brand eyes up rivals after ending exclusive department store contract

The brand’s founder has publicly announced that he has hired a retail consultant to conduct a review of all of his businesses on the region, including his current contracts.

This news is making waves in the industry as the company is known to have held a five year contract with Australian international department store David Jones, and Perdis is rumoured to have been looking to expand the cosmetics line with rivals of the department store.

"We're David Jones' No 1 (cosmetic) colour brand and No 6 total business brand, so we have a phenomenal volume with David Jones, but department stores represent only about 7.5 per cent of my total volume for the business of $130 million​," CEO, Perdis told Broadsheet publication, 'The Australian'.

Poaching​

According to the Aussie publication, David Jones and Myer frequently poach fashion brands from each other, locking them in to contracts that allow suppliers to sell via other retail channels but not their department store rival.

According to a David Jones company spokeswoman; "We are currently in discussions with the brand and are very open to them expanding their distribution. The Myer distribution may give more volume, but David Jones still has a phenomenal amount of growth - our floor sales were up 7 per cent for the season ended January 31."​​

Meanwhile, Perdis told 'The Australian' that he was not concerned that DJs would downgrade its marketing effort on his products if they were also sold at Myer. "When you're hot and the customer wants you, the department stores will always market you​."

In addition to David Jones department stores, Napoleon Perdis cosmetics have been rolled out at more than 2000 stores, including 75 company-owned stores, while its secondary brand NP Set is sold at discount department store chains Target and Big W.

Mr Perdis told the publication that Target, which has been steadily pushing itself upmarket in order to differentiate itself from Wesfarmers stablemate Kmart, had experienced 'phenomenal growth'. "We're growing like crazy: Target is the epitome and epicentre of NP Set in Australia."​

It is yet to be revealed who Perdis will go with on completion of the DJ contract, and representitives were unavailable for further comment on the matter at the time of publication.