The parent company of boutique stationery chain Smiggle has a message for landlords in Australia and overseas – don’t push up rents!

 

Premier Investments chairman Solomon Lew Premier Investments, said online sales across the company’s varied retail brands are now so strong he’s warned big mall landlords if they don’t slash rents, he’ll close the doors and just trade on the web.

 

Premier last month reported a surge in group online sales, which rocketed to $148 million across its brands to now make up 13.4 per cent of overall sales, an increease of 31.7 per cent over 2018.

 

Meantime, the company has highlighted a strategic shift for its valuable Smiggle brand, flagging a surge in sales this year as Smiggle lunchboxes and pencil cases start selling in 180 more stores overseas.

 

Smiggle's "capital-light" global expansion plan, unveiled last September, has beaten expectations and was likely to be more profitable than the previous strategy of opening hundreds of standalone stores.

 

Premier is in the process of setting up Smiggle concessions in the UK and European department stores such as Selfridges and Harrods while also selling Smiggle products on websites such as Amazon.

 

Smiggle sales rose 4.6 per cent to $306.5 million in 2019.

 

Premier said $17 million of recent wholesale orders from retail partners in across six countries would boost sales as much as 25 per cent in the first half of next year and there was scope to double the number of wholesale outlets from 180 to 350 in one to two years.