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Roger Harper: Torpedo7 owner reveals plans to rebrand retailer · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: The new owners of Torpedo seven have announced their plans
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  Speaker 2: for the remaining sixteen stores across the country. Tahoe Group
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  Speaker 2: have bought Torpedo seven off the Warehouse Group for a
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  Speaker 2: dollar last year. You remember that the six marquee Torpedo
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  Speaker 2: seven stores will remain open, which is good for you
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  Speaker 2: to know that Westgate locations will shut. But the interesting
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  Speaker 2: part is what's happening to the other ten stores they'll
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  Speaker 2: rebrand is a new retail chain called the Outlet. Roger
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  Speaker 2: Harper is the Tahua Group managing director. He's with me tonight, Roger,
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  Speaker 2: good evening.
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  Speaker 3: Hi, Roan, great to talk to you.
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  Speaker 2: Tell what is the what's the cell here? Without let
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  Speaker 2: why the rebrand? What's going on?
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  Speaker 3: Well, some time ago we saw what we thought was
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  Speaker 3: a real gap in the market over here. Obviously we
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  Speaker 3: actually not the new owners. We bought Torpedo seven a
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  Speaker 3: year ago, and you know we've been working to turn
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  Speaker 3: that business around. But we'd also seen a gap in
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  Speaker 3: the market that we thought there was for outlet shopping,
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  Speaker 3: particularly in retail New Zealand. Now, if you think about
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  Speaker 3: outlet shopping, everybody loves outlet shopping, opportunity for a treasure hunt,
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  Speaker 3: to find a brand at a great price. And we
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  Speaker 3: have outlet shopping in New Zealand. Think Dress Smart or
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  Speaker 3: Minowa Bay that recently opened in Auckland. But what we're
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  Speaker 3: trying to do and well, and outlet malls are massive
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  Speaker 3: in Australia, off price retail massive overseas think TK and
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  Speaker 3: TJ Max in the US and the UK. But we're
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  Speaker 3: going to try and put it all into one store
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  Speaker 3: and take it to provincial New Zealand and some main
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  Speaker 3: centers as well. But you know, you can't stack an
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  Speaker 3: outlet mall up in Napier, but you can provide an
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  Speaker 3: amazing store with great brands at great prices. So we
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  Speaker 3: think there's a unity there.
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  Speaker 2: What brands are we talking about and what how much
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  Speaker 2: cheaper are we talking?
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  Speaker 3: Well? You you name a brand, Ryan, and well where
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  Speaker 3: where you know in the market. We'll be buying locally
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  Speaker 3: and buying from offshore, and we're hopeful of buying all
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  Speaker 3: the big brands and apparel and footwear in particular, but
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  Speaker 3: sports home a number of categories it's all about getting
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  Speaker 3: getting great deals and and when you're talking what's it
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  Speaker 3: going to be in terms of price, we're saying it's
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  Speaker 3: going to be you know, fifty to thirty to seventy
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  Speaker 3: percent of retail.
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  Speaker 2: I would say, okay, well this is I mean, if
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  Speaker 2: you're listening in the regions, this will be very welcome news.
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  Speaker 2: I would imagine what about the Torpedo seven stores that
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  Speaker 2: you're keeping the flagship the Marquees stores. You know, why
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  Speaker 2: were you keen on picking up the brand and are
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  Speaker 2: they still performing well of delviously are and you're keeping
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  Speaker 2: them open.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, we were really keen on the brand. We
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  Speaker 3: love the category New Zealand Outdoors. Who wants to not
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  Speaker 3: to love about the New Zealand Outdoors? And the brand
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  Speaker 3: was well known and well loved. It obviously was having
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  Speaker 3: a lot of problems with its previous owner. But we
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  Speaker 3: love a good turnaround and we saw a real opportunity
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  Speaker 3: there to turn this business around. And it has scale.
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  Speaker 3: It was a significant sized business, so I think it
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  Speaker 3: when as previous owner had twenty four twenty five stores,
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  Speaker 3: they actually closed a few and we're basically looking for
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  Speaker 3: what is a sustainable model for that brand. It actually
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  Speaker 3: started out over twenty years ago and Hamilton as a
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  Speaker 3: pure online play, and we think, you know, retail channels
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  Speaker 3: have changed, but they haven't changed. We're going back to
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  Speaker 3: being more online, having hero stores. It should be a
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  Speaker 3: great experience in the flagship stores. They'll be well stocked,
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  Speaker 3: have great product, great deals. But online is going to
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  Speaker 3: be a major part of it is a major part
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  Speaker 3: of this business and it's probably going to be a
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  Speaker 3: bigger part in the future. And the existing outlet stores
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  Speaker 3: we still able to click and collect the product from
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  Speaker 3: those stores.
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  Speaker 2: Are we still are we still as into the outdoors
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  Speaker 2: as we as we always have been. I'm just looking
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  Speaker 2: at the Catman do result, I mean a less than
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  Speaker 2: stellar result from them today sort of sport outdoors.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I think we are. We love the outdoors
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  Speaker 3: and as I said Watson not to love about the
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand outdoors. I think what it's happened is it's
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  Speaker 3: really gone through an unusual cycle because during the COVID period,
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  Speaker 3: every body went out and bought a bike or a
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  Speaker 3: tent or a stand up paddle board or that sort
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  Speaker 3: of thing. So we had a mass, massive binge over
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  Speaker 3: those COVID years. And the whole industry, including as you mentioned,
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  Speaker 3: Katman Do has suffered a bit of a hangover after that.
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  Speaker 3: I think a lot of those business thought that it
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  Speaker 3: was the new normal and when stopped up thinking that
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  Speaker 3: business was going to carry on at that level, and
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  Speaker 3: it didn't.
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  Speaker 2: But it'll come back.
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  Speaker 3: It'll go through a cycle. As I say, you know,
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  Speaker 3: people end up buying new tent, they'll end up buying
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  Speaker 3: a bicycle, a snowboard. You know, these things will come
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  Speaker 3: back again.
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  Speaker 2: Roger, great to have you on the show. Appreciate your
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  Speaker 2: time this evening. Roger Harper, Tahua Group Managing Director.
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