Camera brand Leica opens Chadstone store in defiance of retail downturn
The head of Leica’s local operations doesn’t see signs of a retail recession and has opened a third Australian store, in contrast to those who claim shops are struggling.
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The head of Leica’s local operations says he doesn’t see signs of a retail recession as the German camera maker opens its third Australian store.
And an embrace of a bricks-and-mortar network — a move that runs counter to the rise of online retailing — has delivered the premium camera brand double-digit annual sales growth over the past three years, the company said.
“I can’t talk about others but for us we are not in a retail recession,” Leica Camera Australia managing director Ryan Williams told Business Daily.
“We are finding the market quite healthy at the moment.”
Leica this week opened its third Australian store at the nation’s biggest shopping centre, Chadstone.
It opened its first Australian store at the Queen Victoria Building in central Sydney during 2016 and followed that up with an outlet at the St Collins Lane shopping centre, in Melbourne’s CBD, last year.
The 105-year-old camera brand had previously only sold its products through third-party retailers.
But it saw an opportunity to better connect with a loyal customer base that spans professional photographers, enthusiasts and collectors.
“The aim was to bring more customer focus to the brand with the retail stores,” Mr Williams said.
The success here of Leica, whose products range from $1550 to $40,000, highlights the patchy nature of Australia’s retail sector.
While some brands are finding success other Australian heavyweights, such as up-market department store chain David Jones, have declared the retail sector to be in a recession.
David Jones’ South African parent company, Woolworths Holdings, has written off hundreds of millions of dollars from the value of the Australian retailer.
Mr Williams said Leica’s approach to its stores was to use them as a way to create excitement about photography — and hopefully attract new customers — rather than simply stack shelves with products. The high-end Leica outlets follow the Apple model of retail — a showroom rather than retail barn. At Leica, half the floor space is taken up by a photography gallery.
Leica stores host regular exhibitions, as well as workshops and talks by Australian and international photographers.
The Chadstone store has opened with an exhibition by famed Magnum photographer Thomas Hoepker, whose works span from Muhammad Ali in the 1960s to images taken in New York on the day of the September 11 attacks.
The launch of the exhibitions, which change every three months, attract about 100 people, Mr Williams said.
Staff are all photography enthusiasts and store managers are sent to Germany for a training program at the company’s global headquarters.
“What we are trying to do a little bit differently is to create a premium experience for our customers,” Mr Williams said.
“We don’t talk about point of sales at Leica. We talk about point of experience.”