Retail giant bouncing back with new Rivers in Townsville
The pandemic rocked Australian retail, but this retail giant is opening a new Townsville store. Find out where.
Townsville
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Out the other side of the dire pandemic days, men’s and women’s fashion retailer Rivers have acquired space for a megastore in Townsville.
Rivers, owned by Mosaic Brands, have leased space in West End, and the large retail store will open on Saturday, July 15.
Mosaic Brands owns Crossroads, Katies, Noni B and Rivers and in late-2021 confirmed it had closed 288 stores during the Covid-19 pandemic.
However the company benefited from a strong return to instore shopping post Covid lockdowns and restrictions, and planned to open 130 stores in the next 12 months, it stated in Mosaic’s February half-yearly results.
The new Townsville store will be a Rivers Mega, part of Mosaic’s big store strategy.
As at February there were five megastores nationwide and by the 2024 financial year Mosaic plans to have 45. The following year it plans to operate 75 megastores.
A megastore is about five to eight times larger in floor space than a traditional store, the company stated in a February investor update.
Meredith Kenny will manage the 944sq m space at Woodman Court, West End.
About 130 pallets of stock have been delivered to the store so far, and this week staff are busy stocking shelves and tradies are fixing fixtures.
“I’m hoping it’s going to be massive … come and check out the variety we’ve got here,” Ms Kenny said.
The Rivers store at Domain closed in March.
The retailer only had one shutdown period during the pandemic, and Ms Kenny had noticed the big increase in foot traffic since.
The store manager was particularly excited about the large range of brands that came under the megastore umbrella.
Originally published as Retail giant bouncing back with new Rivers in Townsville
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