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Speaker 1: Now the new owners of Torpedo seven have announced their

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Speaker 1: plans for the remaining sixteen stores across the country. Tahoe

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Speaker 1: Group have bought Torpedo seven off the Warehouse Group for

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Speaker 1: a dollar last year. You remember that the six marquee

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Speaker 1: Torpedo seven stores will remain open, which is good for

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Speaker 1: you to know that Westgate locations will shut. But the

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Speaker 1: interesting part is what's happening to the other ten stores

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Speaker 1: they'll rebrand is a new retail chain called the Outlet.

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Speaker 1: Roger Harper is the Tahua Group managing director. He's with

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Speaker 1: me tonight, Roger. Good evening.

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Speaker 2: Hi, Roan, great to talk to you.

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Speaker 1: Tell it. What is the what's the cell here? Without that?

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Speaker 1: Why the rebrand? What's going on?

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Speaker 3: Well, some time ago we saw what we thought was

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Speaker 3: a real gap in the market over here.

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Speaker 2: Obviously we actually not the new owners.

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Speaker 3: We bought Torpedo seven a year ago and you know

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Speaker 3: we've been working to turn that business around. We'd also

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Speaker 3: seen a gap in the market that we thought there

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Speaker 3: was for outlet shopping, particularly in retail New Zealand. Now,

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Speaker 3: if you think about outlet shopping, everybody loves outlet shopping.

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Speaker 3: Opportunity for a treasure hunt to find a brand at

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Speaker 3: a great price. And we have outlet shopping in New

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Speaker 3: Zealand think Dress Smart or Manowa Bay that recently opened

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Speaker 3: in Auckland. But what we're trying to do and well

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Speaker 3: and outlet malls are massive in Australia, off price retail

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Speaker 3: massive overseas think TK and TJ Max in the US

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Speaker 3: and the UK. But we're going to try and put

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Speaker 3: it all into one store and take it to provincial

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Speaker 3: New Zealand and some main centers as well. But you know,

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Speaker 3: you can't stack an outlet mall up in Napier, but

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Speaker 3: you can provide an amazing store with great brands at

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Speaker 3: great prices. So we think there's a opportunity there.

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Speaker 1: What brands are we talking about and what how much

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Speaker 1: cheaper are we talking?

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Speaker 3: Well you you name a brand, Ryan, and well where

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Speaker 3: where you know in the market. We'll be buying locally

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Speaker 3: and buying from offshore and we're hopeful of buying all

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Speaker 3: the big brands and apparel and footwear in particular, but

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Speaker 3: sports home a number of categories. It's all about getting

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Speaker 3: getting great deals and and when you're talking what's it

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Speaker 3: going to be in terms of price we're saying it's

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Speaker 3: going to be you know, fifty to sev thirty to

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Speaker 3: seventy percent of free tail.

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Speaker 1: I would say, okay, well this is I mean, if

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Speaker 1: you're listening in the regions, this will be very welcome news.

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Speaker 1: I would imagine what about the Torpedo seven stores that

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Speaker 1: you're keeping the flagship the Marquees stores. You know, why

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Speaker 1: were you keen on picking up the brand and are

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Speaker 1: they still performing well? Obviously are and you're keeping them open.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Look, we were really keen on the brand. We love

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Speaker 3: the category New Zealand Outdoors. Who wants to not to

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Speaker 3: love about the New Zealand Outdoors And the brand was

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Speaker 3: well known and well loved. It obviously was having a

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Speaker 3: lot of problems with its previous owner, but weally love

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Speaker 3: a good turnaround and we saw a real opportunity there

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Speaker 3: to turn this business around.

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Speaker 2: And it has scale.

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Speaker 3: It was a significant sized business, so I think it

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Speaker 3: when it's previous owner had twenty four twenty five stores,

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Speaker 3: they actually closed a few and we're basically looking for

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Speaker 3: what is a sustainable model for that brand.

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Speaker 2: It actually started out over twenty years ago.

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Speaker 3: In Hamilton as a pure online play, and we think

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Speaker 3: you know, retail channels have changed, but they haven't changed.

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Speaker 3: We're going back to being more online, having hero stores.

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Speaker 3: It should be a great experience in the flagship stores,

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Speaker 3: they'll be well stocked, have great product, great deals. But

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Speaker 3: online is going to be a major part of it

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Speaker 3: is a major part of this business and it's probably

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Speaker 3: going to be a bigger part in the future. And

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Speaker 3: the existing outlet stores we still able to click and

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Speaker 3: collect the product from those stores.

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Speaker 1: Are we still are we still as into the outdoors

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Speaker 1: as we as we always have been. I'm just looking

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Speaker 1: at the Catman Do result, I mean, a less than

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Speaker 1: stellar result from them today, sort of sport outdoors.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I think we are. We love the outdoors

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Speaker 3: and as I said, wat's they're not to love about

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Speaker 3: the New Zealand outdoors. I think what it's happened is

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Speaker 3: it's really gone through an unusual cycle because during the

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Speaker 3: COVID period, everybody went out and bought a bike or

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Speaker 3: a tent, or a stand up paddle board or that

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Speaker 3: sort of thing. So we had a mass assid binge

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Speaker 3: over those COVID years and the whole industry, including as

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Speaker 3: you mentioned, Katman Do, has suffered a bit of a

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Speaker 3: hangover after that. I think a lot of those business

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Speaker 3: thought that it was the new normal and when stopped

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Speaker 3: up thinking that business was going to carry on at

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Speaker 3: that level, and it didn't.

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Speaker 2: But it'll come back. It'll go through a cycle.

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Speaker 3: As I say, you know, people end up buying new tent,

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Speaker 3: they'll end up buying a bicycle, a snowboard. You know,

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Speaker 3: these things will come back again.

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Speaker 1: Roger, great to have you on the show. Appreciate your

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Speaker 1: time this evening. Roger Harper, Tahua Group Managing Director. For

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Speaker 1: more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news talks.

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