Firm cottoning on to rag trade growth

Hamish Heard
Few would have thought that when 19yearold Nigel Austin took a box full of acidwash denim jackets to flog at a Geelong market in 1991 it would grow into one of Australia’s most successful rag chains.
By the end of its 16th year, Cotton On Clothing’s network of retail outlets will include 300 stores spanning three countries.
Cotton On general manager Peter Johnson outlined the store’s progress and expansion plans during a Geelong Business Network breakfast at the city’s Four Points by Sheraton hotel this week.
He told the story of how his enthusiastic boss, Nigel, started out taking faulty oddments and overruns from his father’s business to sell at local markets.
“The first item he sold was an acidwash jacket,” Mr Johnson said.
As a member of Geelong’s Austin dynasty, Nigel could hardly have had a better grounding in the rag trade.
At the start of 2006 Cotton On Clothing had 100 stores throughout Australia.
Within months it had grown to 200 stores operating in Australia and New Zealand and by the end of this year Cotton On will have 300 outlets in three countries.
This year the brand will make its foray into lucrative Asian markets with new stores in Singapore.
Mr Johnson said fastpaced and progressive marketing and product sourcing techniques had laid the foundations for the edgy fashion brand’s success.
“When others were sourcing from wholesalers in Australia, we were sourcing from agents in Asia,” he said.
“When others began sourcing from Asian agents, we were dealing directly with Asian factories and by the time others began doing that we were going into the little villages in the middle of China and literally being met by the mayors and given keys to the village (to start manufacturing).”
Cotton On Clothing now employs more than 200 staff in Geelong alone.
The company now faces the challenge of sourcing a slice of local real estate big enough to build a new headquarters to support its rapidly expanding store network.
Despite plenty of encouragement, Mr Johnson said Cotton On had no plans to list as a public company.