David Jones, Australia's oldest department store chain, will make its first foray overseas in New Zealand.
The retailer will open an upmarket department store in Wellington, taking over the lease of troubled local stalwart Kirkcaldie & Stains.
The unprofitable New Zealand retailer will close the doors to its landmark Lambton Quay building in February, with the store reopening as David Jones by mid 2016.
The decision to take David Jones offshore for the first time in its 177-year history comes nearly 12 months after South African retailer Woolworths bought it for $2.2 billion.
The South African company, which also owns Country Road, Witchery, Trenery and Mimco, has grand plans to become the biggest retailer in the southern hemisphere.
The success of those brands in New Zealand was partly behind the decision to take the Australian department store across the Tasman, David Jones chief executive officer Iain Nairn said.
"David Jones is a recognised brand in New Zealand and we're confident this beautiful building in this cosmopolitan city is the perfect home for our first New Zealand store," Mr Nairn said.
"We feel pretty confident it will be among our top 15 stores."
He said there was no store roll out plan for NZ, with the Wellington lease acquisition an example of David Jones taking advantage of a good opportunity.
"Certainly our medium-term plan is to focus on Australia and this was an opportunity in New Zealand we felt was too good to turn down," he told AAP.
"It's in a heritage-listed building. It's a gorgeous department store in the centre of Wellington.
Because the store is smaller than the average David Jones, Mr Nairn said only the best of its 1,700 brands would be stocked to "wow the New Zealand customer."
Staff who work in the 153-year-old Kirkcaldie building will be offered jobs in the new David Jones store.
David Jones will pay $A500,000 ($NZ543,714) for the Kirkcaldie name and take over the lease of the Lambton Quay store, with the option to buy the retailer's assets for another $500,000.
David Jones's offshore expansion comes as its Australian rival Myer begins closing stores to try and reverse flagging sales.
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