Chief Executive Officer’s Report / Great brands

Inspiring our customers with great brands and great choice

Myer stocks more than 2,000 brands and our focus as a department store is on providing both a wide selection of brands and a meaningful depth within each brand. During the year, we have continued to refine our brand hierarchy, ensuring that in each category we offer a broad range of high quality brands at all key price points, so that all of our customers are able to find the latest merchandise for themselves or their homes, no matter what their budget. Increasingly, we are using the information gained from our MYER one customer data to enhance the range of brands we offer across all categories, and to tailor our offer in individual stores to suit the local customer.

Myer continues to attract the biggest and best names in Australian and International fashion. Myer is now the exclusive Australian department store home of some of the world’s most sought-after brands – Balmain, Temperley London, and Calvin Klein Collection – and we exclusively stock the premium Givenchy, Philosophy by Alberta Ferretti and Moschino labels.

We have a proud history of launching and supporting the careers of Australian designers and this year we are pleased to have added to our portfolio some of Australia’s leading designer labels – Fernando Frissoni, Aurelio Costarella, Nina Maya and, new for Summer, L’Oreal Fashion Festival Young Designer finalist Ellery. Through our Designers @ Myer collection, we work in partnership with popular Australian designers such as Wayne Cooper, Leona Edmiston and Toni Maticevski to bring their creative direction to life using our buying, sourcing and manufacturing expertise. Brands such as Wayne by Wayne Cooper, Maticevski Sweethearts and Jane Lamerton give customers across all of our 66 stores access to great fashion at accessible prices. Wayne by Wayne Cooper has been one of our most popular Designers @ Myer brands, and on the back of its success in Womenswear we have been able to extend this brand into new categories including Footwear, Accessories and Childrenswear with Wayne Jnr by Wayne Cooper. In addition, we are proud to stock a wide range of national brands which are meaningful to customers, such as Cue, Sportscraft, Country Road and Review, and we continue to fill gaps in our range to make sure that there is something for everyone at Myer through brands such as TS14+, our plus size offering.

In the Miss Shop Department, we have developed a new way of merchandising and marketing to our younger customers. Our focus is on making sure we have the right look in-store as quickly as possible, and we are seeing good results from brands such as T by Bettina Liano, the first Designer @ Myer label in Miss Shop. We also introduced the popular Freshjive and Mooks brands into our Youth area.

In Footwear, we have completely overhauled our ranging and in-store presentation and introduced a new specialist buying team, as well as several new brands including Innovare, a high-quality Italian-made women’s range that addresses a gap in our offer and that of the broader footwear market for ’affordable luxury’ in women’s shoes.

Our Cosmetics category is the market leader, and refurbished cosmetic halls in Doncaster, Castle Hill, Blacktown, Geelong and the international-class cosmetics hall in Sydney City are continuing to grow strongly. Mecca Cosmetica, a cosmetics emporium, and the Benefit Brow Bar, bring another dimension to some of our downtown cosmetics halls.

Our Menswear category improved significantly during the year as we focused on improving the breadth and quality of our offer, with the introduction of an expanded range of suiting including Marcs suits, formal wear including a new range by Bagnato Design and active wear. Customers have responded well to the addition of new brands such as Blaq Premium, and the expansion of Ben Sherman to more stores around Australia. This season we are launching the CK Calvin Klein Collection in our Melbourne and Sydney flagship stores.

The Childrenswear category performed very well during the year and represents an exciting growth opportunity, driven by strong customer support for the fashionability and quality of brands including Tilii, Milkshake, Jack & Milly, Sprout and Origami.

Customers are often cautious about spending on Homewares and Furniture in tough times. Despite that, these categories performed well during the year in response to new brands including Kylie at Home, Victorinox, and Joseph and Joseph.

A significant amount of last year’s Federal Government stimulus money was spent on electrical goods, so this year it’s been tough for our Electrical category to match its previous level of growth. However, the introduction of new buying structures and processes, more focused and relevant promotional activity and price matching, and the launch of the exciting new Apple iPad have contributed to an improving performance.