| Type | Privately held company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 2005 |
| Headquarters | North Ryde, New South Wales, Australia |
| Number of locations | 330 stores |
| Key people | David Young, CEO |
| Operating income | A$1 billion (2010) |
| Owner(s) | Jan Cameron |
| Employees | 8000 |
| Subsidiaries | Chickenfeed, Go-Lo, Sams Warehouse, Crazy Clarks |
| Website | www.retailadventures.com.au |
The Retail Adventures group is the largest discount variety retailer in Australia following the acquisition of Australian Discount Retail in 2009.
Australian Discount Retail was formed in 2005 after the sale of the discount division of Miller's Retail (now known as Specialty Fashion Group) and the sale of The Warehouse Australia by The Warehouse Group New Zealand to private equity firms Catalyst and CHAMP. Catalyst and CHAMP reportedly paid $200 million which was funded by NAB Capital, ANZ and BOS International. The combined entity was Australia’s leading discount variety retailer with revenues nearing $1 billion and a store presence in every state and territory in the country.[1]
The company traded under the household names Go-Lo /Crazy Clark's (275 stores), Chickenfeed (39 stores), and Sam's Warehouse (99 stores). In 2008 the company rebranded all The Warehouse stores as Sam's Warehouse as a condition of sale from The Warehouse New Zealand.
Retail Adventures has more than ten buyers ranging merchandise for over 25 buying categories. This merchandise is sourced from suppliers based locally and overseas.
The main competitors of Australian Discount Retail include Kmart, Homeart and The Reject Shop.
On 20 January 2009 the Board of Australian Discount Retail has placed the company in voluntary administration. Staff have been assured their entitlements are safe, but the future of their employment would not be known for months as a buyer was sought for the business.[2] The size and scale of ADR makes this the biggest retail collapse Australian business in over five years.[3]
On 23 March 2009 it was announced that the company had been sold to Retail Adventures Pty Ltd, a company owned by Australian millionaire Jan Cameron, the former owner of Kathmandu, for an undisclosed sum. The sale guarantees the 2,500 permanent and 7,500 casual jobs under ADR.[4]
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Project Simplify is a long term strategic plan initiated by Jan Cameron & David Young since the acquisition of ADR in 2009. Young and his colleagues believed that the business was too complicated, and are planning a number of changes to be carried out by 2013.[5]
Retail Adventures focuses on the Pareto Principle, rather than strategies like sales per square meter and department performance. David Young explains "That core range is built on the 80-20 principle: 20 percent of our range will give us 80 percent of our business." In this way, the company focuses on their core merchandise range and seasonal demand is what drives the rest of the business platform. This in turn means that the specific stock will variate around the country, due to each individual stores ability to be flexible in promotion, planning and stock display.[5]
Each of the 4 subsidiaries of Retail Adventures entered the acquisition with individual strategies and slogans. Retail Adventures plans to merge all of their counterparts into Chickenfeed, with the slogan "Bargains With A Smile". Chickenfeed retailers on average outperformed the all the other markets owned by Retail Adventures by at least 30% per square meter. Chickenfeed utilize catalog advertising approximately 25% less than its counterparts, and use television advertisements as their main marketing venture, working with 4-5 different product commercials. The success seen from these community strategies that Chickenfeed has utilized is what Retail Adventures plans to use for each of its brands.[5]
The retail industry generally suffers from a high staff turnover rate. As part of "Project Simplify", Retail Adventures is beginning to offer training, development programs and potential career development to its employees. Employment opportunities which open up within the company are usually made aware to the current staff, so as to encourage them to stay within the company, whilst being able to grow or move up in business.[5] These offers are generally circulated through emails and company bulletins.
As part of "Project Simplify", Retail Adventures plans to utilize its unused physical space. The company is looking to either add 150 Chickenfeed stores to the brand, or become a third party logistics provider. Retail Adventures takes advantage of parallel importing as a way to help keep overall costs down because of the lack of trading complexities. Whilst maintaining currently buying techniques, the company is in the process of upgrading its technologies to better manage aspects such as allocation, forecasting and replensihment of its merchandise.[5]