Smiggle to hit $450m in sales by FY2020

Colourful children's stationery chain Smiggle is expected to exceed $450 million in revenue by the 2020 financial year, Solomon Lew says.

A Smiggle stationary store

Premier Investments chairman Solomon Lew has upgraded the outlook for stationary chain Smiggle. (AAP)

Premier Investments chairman Solomon Lew has upgraded the long-term outlook for the group's star business, stationery chain Smiggle.

Mr Lew says Smiggle had been targeting sales revenue of more than $400 million by the 2020 financial year but the brand's successful expansion means it is now expected to surpass $450 million within three years.

"This would mean almost a doubling of the record sales achieved in the 2017 financial year," Mr Lew told Premier's annual general meeting in Melbourne on Friday.

Smiggle has 320 stores across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Hong Kong and Malaysia.

A further 12 will open during the first half of the current financial year and, on top of that, Smiggle will make its foray into continental Europe, starting with the Netherlands and Belgium in 2018.

Mr Lew said Premier's other stand-out retailer, sleepwear brand Peter Alexander, has a new three-year growth strategy.

The group will invest further in Peter Alexander's online and new bricks and mortar stores with the goal of hitting more than $250 million in sales by 2020.

Mr Lew said Premier's other apparel brands, Portmans and Jacqui E have continued to see sales growth and Just Jeans and Jay Jays have "strong competitive market positions".

However, he said Dotti was up against extreme competition from international entrants but, as previously stated, the group was negotiating lower rents with landlords.

Premier closed eight unprofitable stores during the 2017 financial year and was prepared to close more if excessive rents made them unprofitable, Mr Lew said.

The value of the group's stake in home appliance maker Breville has also grown, from $216.9 million at the end of the 2017 financial year to a current market value of about $470 million.

But its 10.8 per cent stake in Myer is a sore point, having fallen from $101 million in March to $67.7 million by the end of the 2017 financial year.

Mr Lew told Premier's shareholders that the group would continue to do everything it can to protect their investment.

"The pressure is on the Myer board - having aggressively denied our help - they must now deliver," he said.

Mr Lew has been publicly at war with the Myer board in recent months over its failure to turnaround the department store's sales decline and for denying him three director seats on the board.

At Myer's AGM in November, Mr Lew garnered enough support to lead a first strike against Myer's executives pay.

Shares in Premier were down 1.11 per cent, or 16 cents, at $14.25 by 1226 AEDT on Friday.


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Source: AAP


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