This week, a deep dive on cult Canadian Gen Z brand Garage, including how it has achieved 30% profit margins and turned each new store profitable in an average of 18 months. We also speak with JCPenney CEO Michelle Wlazlo about what’s bringing Gen Z back to the mall.The cult Canadian fashion brand Garage is on a retail tear. It opened a new store in London this week and two in Manchester last month, plus, since November, it has opened locations in Louisiana, Hawaii and San Francisco.
Overall, the 51-year-old company has been opening around 20 stores per year for the last two years, and it plans to continue that trend over the next two or three years. It’s paying off. Garage parent company Groupe Dynamite has seen its profits soar over the last two years, from $27 million last year to $51 million now, and its annual revenue is well over $1 billion. In its most recent earnings call, the company reported a 37% increase in year-over-year revenue.
Garage’s leadership puts this success down to two things: investing in malls just as Gen Z shoppers are embracing them and focusing on profitability in its retail locations, which mitigates the costs of opening them.
“There’s a mall every three miles in the United States, so we have to be very choosy about where we put our brand,” said Stacie Beaver, president and CEO of Groupe Dynamite, which also owns the workwear brand Dynamite. “We go where there’s a lifestyle that matches the brand — where there’s dinner, movies, places where the customer is already going.”
