New Ownership of Barkers
Barkers Mens Clothing Press Release 5/12/06 :
Re : New Ownership of Barkers
Barkers Mens Clothing has recently been acquired by Zac de Silva and Chris Greive. Zac de Silva will be the managing director, with Chris Greive acting as chairman.
Barkers have 19 stores across NZ. It is established as an iconic male fashion brand in NZ and has been operating since 1972.
Zac de Silva said they had been attracted to Barkers as it was a well established brand with a strong reputation.
“With 34 years history in New Zealand Barkers is well regarded and would be considered to be in the top two male retail brands in the country.”
De Silva commented that plans included enhancing the commercial approach of Barkers.
“Obviously our priority is to our existing customer base, which is very loyal. Over the years they have come to expect stylish, durable clothes at a reasonable price and this will continue. We do however see opportunities to expand Barkers into other related areas.”
De Silva said that the first months trading under their ownership saw sales up by 5% on last year which compares well to recent sales information released by two fashion retail publicly listed competitors who had reported sales declines.
Greive and De Silva worked together at Flight Centre Ltd for a number of years, as managing director and chief financial officer respectively. More recently De Silva was the finance and commercial director for the House of Travel Group. Greive has been based in Europe whilst still acting as an advisor to Flight Centre Ltd.
ENDS