T-shirt brand expanding
A home-grown T-shirt brand is going up a size and is keen to support smaller designers as it expands to a bigger shop under a new name.
Pork Chop Hill started in a cosy Cuba St store in Palmerston North nearly seven years ago as a mostly online business, with its physical shop open only on Saturdays or by appointment.
But the business has outgrown the old store and moved to The Square this week. The new shop will be open from Wednesday through to Saturday.
Co-founders Simon Francis and Catherine Russ plan to use the expansion to help smaller designers reach customers and give them a leg up. The shop’s name has been changed to T-shirt Dispensary to reflect this ambition.
Francis said Pork Chop Hill would remain the store’s home brand, but with nearly double the rack and shelf space available, they now had room for designers who were just starting out or too small for their own shop.
‘‘It’s a bit of an experiment, but nothing ventured, nothing gained,’’ he said.
The company was in a good position financially to both expand and take some calculated risks.
Russ said Pork Chop Hill’s blend of nostalgic humour and Palmerston North pride played well along with the ‘‘support local business’’ campaigns sparked during the coronavirus pandemic.
‘‘People have really embraced that. We ended up having a better year [in 2020] than the year before, despite Covid.’’
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‘‘We ended up having a better year [in 2020] than the year before, despite Covid.’’
Catherine Russ
chain, opened at The Plaza earlier this month.
Cosmic managing director Mark Carswell said the chain started in Christchurch 25 years ago. It had grown to 10 stores around New Zealand and was just starting to branch out of the main centres.
Cosmic had had its eye on Palmerston North for a while, and the city’s good reputation won out over other options, such as Queenstown, he said.
‘‘The industry talk is The Plaza is one of the best malls in New Zealand. It’s part of my job to travel to malls all over the country, and I have to agree.’’
Carswell said Cosmic had hired four staff to run the store, and an existing employee had moved to Palmerston North with his family to manage it.
Plaza centre manager Andrew Heaphy said Maher Shoes was returning to Palmerston North, and was due to open a store in the shopping mall in May.
The new shop will be just around the corner from The Body Shop.
Heaphy said The Plaza was also negotiating with potential tenants to replace Baby City and clothing store Postie at the mall’s Fitzherbert Ave entrance.
Just outside the Plaza a new takeaway restaurant, Pizza Club Max, is moving in on the corner of Church and Ashley streets.