Walking along Fremantle’s Market Street in 2002, business manager Richard Poulson and his wife, designer Kylie Radford, had a clear vision of their future business, clothing and retail company Morrison International Pty Ltd.
The couple sold their car and prized ski boat to hastily renovate their Market Street store with Ikea furniture and displays bought at a Harris Scarf liquidation auction.
Since those early days, the combination of nouveau clothing design, high-product acceptance and congenial in-store atmosphere has established the ‘Morrison’ identity in Fremantle, the signature to all stores within the company’s expansion program.
Morrison, named after the owners’ dog, has introduced three new stores over an 18-month period, including a new Morrison store in Claremont and one in Paddington, Sydney. The company also has opened a Mini Morri store, which is based on the same principles at Morrison but with a focus on children’s lifestyle clothing.
Morrison is currently expanding into Queensland, including locations in far north Queensland, the Whitsunday Islands and other popular locations along the Queensland coast.
Morrison is also now available in Singapore and New Zealand and will soon be in Dubai in a well-established retail fashion area.
And plans are under way for expansion into the UK, Ireland, Europe and parts of the US.
The turnover of the combined business entity (including stores and wholesale) has increased more than 185 per cent since 2003-04, from $2 million to $5.7 million in 2005-06, while staff numbers have increased from 10 to 25 during the same period.
Morrison could have limited its range of outlets by vastly increasing prices and supplying label-only stores, but this would defeat the purpose of the business’s original intention of supplying a unique product range to the general public, the owners say.
Mr Poulsen’s background in advertising, marketing and business management, coupled with his wife’s talent in clothing design, became the core of the successful venture.
