Premier Investment's leading leisurewear label Peter Alexander is headed for an overseas expansion as it hurtles towards a pyjamas peak in Australia by 2020.
The United Kingdom looks likely to be the next stop for the quirky night attire chain, a market Premier chairman and major shareholder Solomon Lew claims is a strong cultural fit for the brand's offbeat designs and leisure attire.
![Premier Investments chair, Solly Lew (right) and chief executive, Mark McInnes are exploring an off-shore expansion for ...](/web/20160926053739im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/m/h/i/z/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.grm5k4.png/1474539041867.jpg)
Premier plans to open between five and seven new stores in Australia a year for the next three years and it's keen to lift its presence in Australia's major airports but beyond this the big growth opportunities are in new markets overseas.
"We still see, over the next three years 20 to 25 new stores and another 10 to 20 up-sizes and refurbishments so within that, there is quite a lot of growth," Premier chief executive Mark McInnes said. "But outside of that growth of calendar 2019, we see it as it has then fulfilled its growth potential both in store and online."
![Smiggle sales rocketed 41.8 per cent higher to $188 million.](/web/20160926053739im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/1/1/m/t/a/j/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.grm5k4.png/1474539041867.jpg)
Despite this, Mr Mcinnes said Premier had not formed a "fixed view" about expanding Peter Alexander, which he said was a very different business to Premier's popular international stationery label Smiggle.
"When we launch a new pencil case in Smiggle, we can launch that at the same time in every country on the same day around the world, so it's a fundamentally different decision-making process," Mr McInnes said.
"We are exploring it, we've done some detailed tours ... obviously our experience in the UK is significant and that has given us a market to look at but we're not about to make a decision."
Premier's management team is intimately familiar with the UK market from its expansion of the Smiggle business since 2014.
![Mark Mcinnes said Premier had not formed a 'fixed view' about expanding Peter Alexander.](/web/20160926053739im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/m/h/k/z/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.grm5k4.png/1474539041867.jpg)
Last financial year alone Premier opened 40 Smiggle stores in the UK and undertook a post-Brexit review of the market to ensure demand was not dented by the UK vote to quit the European Union.
Smiggle claims sales were not affected by the polarising vote, however it has slowed its new store roll out which was originally for 100 stores in the UK by Christmas this year.
This target has been downgraded to between 85 and 90 stores, however Mr McInnes said it was still on track to have 200 stores by 2019, which was the target set in 2014.
Smiggle sales rocketed 41.8 per cent higher to $188 million and more than half its revenue was generated outside Australia. It plans to expand its network into new regions but Premier would not provide any details of which markets were at the top of its list.
Smiggle opened new stores in Malaysia and Hong Kong last financial year and it plans to have 50 stores in these territories within the next five years.
Smiggle and Peter Alexander, Premier's rock star brands, are expected to support half of Premier's retail sales by 2020 up from about a third of revenue last financial year, when sales punched through the $1 billion mark for the first time.
Mr Lew emphasised it was still investing in its mature, apparel brands, including Just Jeans, Dotti, Portmans and Jay Jays and it expects these chains to continue to grow and expand.
Premier's full-year profit was 17.9 per cent higher at $103.9 million but that didn't stop its share price slumping by more than 8.5 per cent before closing 2 per cent lower at $16.17.
Broker Credit Suisse said the result was in line with market expectations despite comparable store sales growth sliding from 6.9 per cent in the first half of the financial year to flat in the second half as the warm start to winter weighed on apparel sales across the sector.
Premier reported full-year like-for-like sales growth of 3.5 per cent across its brand portfolio.
Credit Suisse analyst Grant Saligari said despite providing no formal guidance, Premier revealed sales improved in June and July once the weather cooled, "providing a solid start to 2017".
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