To be announced later today, the company that gave me my first break in the New Zealand fashion industry, Little Brother, will close all its retail stores in the next few months to focus on a new distribution deal with NZ menswear giant (and the creators of those classic trackpants) Barkers.
We've just made a decision that Little Brother, we want to be able to focus on it as a brand, from an ideas point of view, rather than throwing so much resource at retailing and manufacturing, and it's the right economic climate to be doing it in as well.
Murray Crane (pictured above with Zac from Barkers), spoke with me last week about the new deal. Read the interview below.
Tell me what's happening with Little Brother.
We're closing retail, we've signed a distribution deal with Barkers, so bringing the brand into all of their retail stores starting next year. It'll mainly be the staple items we've always done, shirts, pants, coats in winter, a couple of blazers.
And that will change every season?
Yes, and throughout the seasons as they sell out.
So does that mean that you'll be starting to make Little Brother in China?
Some of it will be, yeah.
Who will be designing Little Brother now?
It'll still be designed by us, by me.
Will you be wholesaling it as well?
No just exclusive distribution – for New Zealand it's exclusive distribution with Barkers.
Will you be making thousands and thousands of everything?
No it's still going to be pretty limited. I don't think we'll be doing any more than 300 in anything so it will still be quite limited, and that's throughout New Zealand. Obviously there have been some things that we've done that we've sold a lot more than that anyway, but in terms of printed tees and stuff like that it'll all be limited, we'll do a certain amount and they'll sell out. In terms of the philosophy behind the brand, it's not going to suddenly become mainstream, it'll still be quite exclusive, it'll just be more readily available. Cities like Hamilton, Napier, Lower Hutt, Manukau, places we don't get to at the moment. We'll have our own website online too that you'll be able to buy from through the Barkers system.
How many styles will be going into Barkers?
Twelve styles.
The same shapes as you already do?
Yep, it's all the same, most customers won't even notice the difference.
But at a much lower price point?
Yeah that's the main reason why we're doing it. Little Brother's always seemed to have kinda suffered from not having enough scale, not being big enough, so unless we wanted to invest in opening up another ten stores, it's just not the right growth path really, we want to focus on growing the Crane Brothers business. [Little Brother] will be significantly cheaper, probably a third cheaper.
Did they approach you? Or did you approach them?
They approached me about two years ago, and at that point I wasn't ready to do it... this is a big agreement, it's a three year agreement.
And it'll still be called Little Brother? Will everything be exactly the same? Logos etc?
Yep. It'll still be Little Brother product. It's a distribution agreement. We'll just be in more stores, at a better price, and we're just finding that we need to be more accessible really, more commercial I guess, well not commercial, but more available, and cheaper.
Will you retain 100% creative control? You won't have to discuss anything with Barkers?
Only commercial stuff like numbers, quantities and sizes.
And in terms of campaigns?
We'll be involved in that, but they'll obviously be marketing it themselves.
What's happening with the High St store?
Well the Wellington Little Brother store is going to be opening as a Crane Brothers store in that site, in February, and we're moving our Gubb and Mackie store out of Britomart into High St.
So you're closing the Gubb and Mackie store down?
Yes.
Would that mean that with all the developments that have gone down at Britomart it hasn't really worked?
No it's just not a good time to be pioneering a new store, in a new retail precinct, in the current economy. (ed's note – interestingly, this is exactly what Murray Crane's brother Mark is doing right now with his new Wunderkammer store.)
That's a shame, it's a great store down there.
Yeah and we probably will end up going back in there at some stage.
So will you be keeping the lease?
No, not at this stage, no.
Will you keep the High St Little Brother store the same size? Or will you try and take over the next door neighbour's store?
No, we're keeping it the same size at this stage.
Did you already know that [you were moving Gubb and Mackie there] when you painted the store?
No. Well it has been in our thinking, but it has all happened relatively quickly, like in the last few months really.
In terms of staff here, will there be any layoffs?
No, they've all been absorbed in. Some of them were leaving anyway, some of the part timers (ed's note: incidentally one of the Little Brother staff members (Tim) is going to work for Mark Crane at Wunderkammer starting in a couple of weeks) we've been pretty lucky actually, we've made a couple of redundancies, in manufacturing.
What is the date that Little Brother closes?
It's still a little bit undecided, but we're looking at the Gubb and Mackie store opening in High St about the fourteenth of January, and the Wellington store will close at Christmas so that we can start fitting that store out for Christmas.
And when does Little Brother start going into Barkers?
Winter, so it will be the end of March, beginning of April.
Where are you going to take Crane Brothers?
Well we're opening up another store, which will be a big thing.
In Wellington?
Yeah.
So no more expansion in Auckland at this stage?
No. We are looking at Australia possibly for retail, in the next 18 months, two years.
We've just made a decision that Little Brother, we want to be able to focus on it as a brand, from an ideas point of view, rather than throwing so much resource at retailing and manufacturing, and it's the right economic climate to be doing it in as well.
Have you seen your brother's new store?
No. But I've heard it's good.
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