Premier Investments plays hard-ball with landlords.

 

Retail group Premier Investments will close its Smiggle store in Sydney’s CBD as part of its campaign to secure lower rents from landlords.

 

Premier Investments has taken a hard line with landlords in areas where stores have been hardest hit by the pandemic.

 

The company’s stores were closed for more than 42,000 combined trading days due to lockdowns in various markets.

 

Premier Investments said it will close four stores in Mid-City Arcade in the Sydney CBD, according to Business News Australia. 

 

These comprise Smiggle, Peter Alexander and Portmans, which will close in March, and Just Jeans, which will close no later than July next year.

 

“It is not the group’s objective to close any stores,” Premier Investments CEO, Richard Murray, said

 

“However, store closures are necessary and inevitable when landlords do not accept this shift in consumer behaviour.

 

“These closures demonstrate the group’s previously announced intention to walk away from stores where landlords seek rents which are unrealistic and which do not reflect the market, particularly in those centres where customer foot traffic has been decimated by the pandemic,” he said.

 

Meantime, Premier Investments has reported solid underlying profit growth on the back of $769 million in sales for the first half.

 

The global retailer has been buoyed by a 27 per cent increase in online sales to $195 million, which now represents about a quarter of the group’s total revenue.

 

The standout performers for Premier Investments during the half year have been Smiggle, which has benefited from children returning to school, and strong results from the Peter Alexander and Portmans businesses.