Less front for Myer
New CEO draws up strategy
MYER has not ruled out reducing the floor space of its Geelong store amid national tumbling profits and a changing market.
Earlier this month, new Myer chief John King said the department store would ditch its clearance floors, roll out a new website, hand back levels of floors to landlords and lock in more exclusive brands.
Mr King has also vowed to update store interiors and declutter shop floors.
While he has declined to detail plans for the Geelong store, he said, in a national press conference this month, that managers had developed action plans for every store.
Myer’s future in Geelong has been under scrutiny with the 117-year-old retailer repeatedly refusing to comment on its long-term plans.
Westfield said yesterday Myer’s lease “is not due to expire for a number of years” but would not say if the depart- ment store was considering reducing its floor space.
There had been rumours this year the store could be transformed into a discount format outlet.
The bargain set-up was launched at Frankston last year under former chief executive Richard Umbers.
At the time Mr Umbers said the Frankston trial led to a 31 per cent increase in customers who were not Myer One members.
But this month Mr King said it would ditch its controversial clearance strategy.
“We will reset and update our store facilities, declutter, reduce stock, easy to navigate,” he said.
“We will remove clearance zones through 2019 and focus on buying better. The whole idea of this is to improve navigation for the customer and improve full price sales.”
Mr King said since joining Myer in June he had completed a thorough review, including visiting 44 stores and had met customers, team members, suppliers, brand partners and landlords.
“Our plan is to put our cus- tomers first in everything we do. We are refocusing our efforts on marketing and our product offering. We know our customers want high quality, on-trend products, at the right price,” Mr King said.
“We are making changes to our product ranges, store layouts, and online offering and we have worked to influence how we will trade at Christmas.”