One size fits all. Not.
The rise and rise of 3 Wise Men proves a well-made shirt never goes out of fashion
Friday, April 30 2010 || Progress report || BY Nicola Kean
The ‘wise men’ of the business name refers to its founders: Richard Miles, Hugh Cotterill and Simon Peacocke. Since 2005, its small-run, well-made shirts have been snapped up by suave businessmen around New Zealand and, for the past 18 months, Australia.
When Unlimited first featured the trio in 2007, the company had two stores in Auckland and one in Wellington. Christchurch was next on the horizon, before crossing the ditch to set up shop in the Sydney suburb of Paddington in September 2008.
It proved more difficult than expected, says Miles. “The retail landscape is more competitive than the New Zealand one in our category. It’s been challenging and a steep learning curve for all sorts of reasons.”
Two big reasons are Myer and David Jones, the department stores that dominate the menswear market in Australia.
But Miles, Cotterill and Peacocke are undeterred, and a second Sydney store is in the works. If lease arrangements go according to plan, it should open in a couple of months. Further expansion is not on the agenda at the moment, Miles says. “We’ve still got work to do in New South Wales.”
The trio — friends through school and university — pushed into the Australian market with no outside capital and few changes to their business model. The company sells shirts and not a lot else. “We remain true to shirts, and that will always be the core part of our business,” says Miles. “Having said that, we’re always exploring other opportunities; footwear is on the agenda for this year.
“What we’re about is saying that we access small runs of fabric so that we’ve got constant change in our retail stores. We’re only making 40 or 50 shirts a batch at most cases or a lot of cases.”
Finding a Chinese supplier to do such short runs and small quantities proved difficult in the first instance, but Miles says the partnership has strengthened over time. “I guess they’re just hoping that we can make a go of Australia properly, where they see, and rightly so, that there’ll be some significant volume.
“As we grow, we can mill larger runs of fabric because they’re spread across two or three markets. But at this point we’re still working on the basis that we are trying to source small runs of fabric so we turn them over quickly.”
There’s been plenty of interest from investors wanting in on the business, but three wise men are enough for the moment.
From startup capital of $300,000, the company now has a turnover of around $5 million, says Miles, who still manages the day-to-day running of the business. His “two noisy silent shareholders” take more of a back seat. “It’s a great dynamic, and that dynamic is actually still working really nicely,” he says.
The lesson from 3 Wise Men’s success, says Miles, is to back your company and your business plan, and give it a go. “Looking back at it, I was absolutely shuddering to think what was going to happen — it’s that fear of the unknown that probably stops a lot of new businesses ever getting off the ground.
“I know that’s a bit cliched, but if you’ve done a strong business plan and research into the market, then I think you’ve just got to back yourself that that’s the right thing, and push ahead and have a go.”
