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Speaker 1: Most retailers are struggling, but Kmart is certainly not. Kmart's

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Speaker 1: revenue New Zealand grew to almost one billion dollars for

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Speaker 1: the financial Yeah. Actually that's the region's revenue. The company

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Speaker 1: made more than one hundred million dollars in profit here

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Speaker 1: in New Zealand. That's up fifty two percent year on year.

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Speaker 1: Auckland University marketing professor Mike Lee has with been our

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Speaker 1: Hey Mike.

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Speaker 2: Hey, thanks for having me, Mike.

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Speaker 1: For them to go up fifty two percent year on

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Speaker 1: year is remarkable given how hard the warehouse is doing it,

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Speaker 1: isn't it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, if you look at some of the

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Speaker 2: grass they're available at, the warehouse is plateaued for a

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Speaker 2: while now, and the cccmart kind of encroaching on their

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Speaker 2: market share. You're on here, just climbing that steep upwards

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Speaker 2: sort of trajectory.

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Speaker 1: What are they doing, right, do you reckon? I mean,

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Speaker 1: obviously they've got a range of stuff that's cool, and

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Speaker 1: they've also got at really good prices. But is there

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Speaker 1: something else going on here?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? I think they've made a strategic decision a piccaut

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Speaker 2: or soga to really instead of trying to be everything

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Speaker 2: to everyone as to be just a few things, a

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Speaker 2: few really good things to a few people. And that's

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Speaker 2: just been a model that's really really what they've been leveraging.

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Speaker 2: They reduced the amount of stuff that they had and

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Speaker 2: only focused on really good quality products at that affordable price.

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Speaker 2: And so through doing that and sort of getting their

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Speaker 2: fashion and style up a bit, they've managed to sort

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Speaker 2: of avoid the stigma that most big box retail bargain

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Speaker 2: retailers have and so now you've got a generation of

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Speaker 2: people that are seeing things on TikTok and trends and

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Speaker 2: other things that are able to go to came out

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Speaker 2: and not feel embarrassed by it. There's not that stigma,

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Speaker 2: and I think that's where a lot of the growth

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Speaker 2: is coming from as well.

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Speaker 1: So who is it that they're actually targeting. Is it

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Speaker 1: young mums?

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Speaker 2: I think it's definitely a younger profile, maybe slightly trendier

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Speaker 2: fashionable people, but also a lot of you know gen

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Speaker 2: Z's and people that are following influencers. You know, seeing

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Speaker 2: people sort of lifestyle hacks to get a certain look

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Speaker 2: for a certain price, but then also get products that

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Speaker 2: aren't maybe perceived as as tinny as some of the

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Speaker 2: other products you might get at the cheaper places.

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Speaker 1: Do you buy anything from Kman I have in the past.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, and it's it's been pretty good. And

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Speaker 2: obviously the store environment when you go in is a

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Speaker 2: little bit more, I guess, feels a bit more upmarket,

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Speaker 2: not quite the sort of same bargain sort of bin

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Speaker 2: field that you get. Yeah, and the real test will be,

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Speaker 2: you know, when they open that megastore opposite Costcos and

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Speaker 2: Worth Pokland and how that fares. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Interesting. Hey, Mike, thanks very much. I really appreciate your

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Speaker 1: running us through your thoughts there. That's Mike Lee, Auckland

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Speaker 1: University marketing professor. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive,

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Speaker 1: listen live to news talks.

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Speaker 2: It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast

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