Australian fashion chain, Seed Heritage, will open its first New Zealand store in April, Inside Retail PREMIUM can exclusively reveal.
Although New Zealand store locations have not yet been disclosed, Inside Retail PREMIUM can confirm that five Seed Heritage flagship stores will open on the North Island in 2015, with the first at an undisclosed location in Auckland.
The company will also open its first Singapore stores in 2015.
Seed Heritage is owned by Peter Lew, son of Australian retail magnate, Solomon Lew, and his Brandbank business, which operates Seed Heritage, French Connection, and Thurley stores in Australia.
French Connection will also open across in NZ in April for the first time in a flagship site on Nuffield St in Newmarket, Auckland.
Seed first opened in Melbourne in 2000 and and since grown to more than 100 stores in Australia and Hong Kong, along with its juniors brands, Seed Child and Baby, and Seed Teen.
The first Seed Teen store opened in Armadale, Melbourne, in 2013, following a 2012 launch and caters for girls aged 12-16.
The Seed brand is well known for its beautifully designed stores, and NZ stores are expected to carry Seed’s latest design and fitout concept, first launched at Indooroopilly in Brisbane last year.
The new store concept uses key sections, or ‘pods’ to define and frame product, encasing the shopfront using modern and traditional architectural elements with a colour palette of natural materials such as timber, stone, and glass.
Said Denise Haughey, GM of Seed Heritage, at the time of the new store look the new concept will be worthy of discussion.
“A timeless, classic yet contemporary interior will complement the well established Seed Heritage brand, evolving and expanding its current look into something sensational. It is a new era of growth for seed and our new store design lifts the bar on everything we do,” Haughey said.
French Connection was founded in London in 1972, and is famed for its FCUK moniker. It has stores in 60 countries.
Brandbank and Seed Heritage could not be reached for comment prior to going to press.
