New owners of Barkers clothing say sales up 5% in November

By NZPA

Tuesday 5th December 2006

The new owners of unlisted company Barkers Men's Clothing say sales in their first month at the retailer were up 5% on a year ago.

Barkers, which has 19 stores across the country, was bought for an undisclosed price from company Apparel Brands at the beginning of November by Zac de Silva and Chris Greive.

Greive has previously been managing director of Flight Centre, where de Silva was the chief financial officer before becoming finance and commercial director for the House of Travel Group.
Grieve has been based in Europe while still acting as an advisor to Flight Centre.

Today de Silva said the new owners were attracted to Barkers as it was a well established brand with a strong reputation.

In the first month's trading under the new owners, sales were up by 5% on last year, he said.

In contrast, clothing retailer Hallenstein Glasson last week said its sales for the 16 weeks to November 21 were 2% down on last year.

de Silva said the new owners saw opportunities to expand Barkers into related areas.

He would not elaborate, except to say that could include not only expanding product range but also growing throughout the country. For instance, Barkers now had just four sites in the South Island.

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