Cotton On announces brand shake up, job cuts

An iconic Geelong brand has announced a huge shake-up of its business operations. Find out more.

Nigel Austin from Cotton On

Cotton On has revealed plans to cut jobs and “reorganise” its brands amid a shake-up of business operations.

The iconic Geelong brand, founded by Nigel Austin, told the Geelong Advertiser on Wednesday that the company would organise its labels into two primary units.

Cotton On, as well as Cotton On Kids, Body and Rubi will remain under the same umbrella, with longtime chief exeuctive Peter Johnson remaining.

Other labels including Factorie, Typo, and Supre will now be part of a new faction, to be known as Emerging Brands.

Cotton On chief financial officer Michael Hardwick said the decision to reorganise the business was made several months ago.

“There is no change to our governing board or corporate structure; however, there has been a small number of roles removed from our simplified operating model to reduce any duplication of work,” he said.

The company did not confirm the number of jobs that would be made redundant.

The Geelong Advertiser understands managers who were unsuccessful in retaining their corporate roles were offered lower positions such as store management, while others, including at least one Melbourne-based area manager, took redundancies.

“This work was done to get closer to our customer, simplify our operating model, further empower our leaders and accelerate global growth,” Mr Hardwick said.

“We will continue to proudly operate our global support centre from our Geelong campus.”

It is understood the company’s chief retail officer Nat McClean will become the chief executive of Emerging Brands.

Cotton On North Geelong headquarters. Picture: Alan Barber

Now headquartered in North Geelong, the brand started out with Mr Austin selling denim jackets at Norlane’s Beckley Markets in the late 1980s.

After opening its first store in the 1990s, the brand expanded internationally in 2006.

Cotton On Kids was launched in 2004, followed shortly thereafter by Typo, Factorie, Cotton On Body and Rubi.

In 2013, the company purchased youth-oriented brand Supre.

Now operating in more than 20 countries, a new global flagship store was launched at Westfield Geelong in early 2023.

Originally published as Cotton On announces brand shake up, job cuts