👉 Background: KMD Brands is the owner of Kathmandu (the store known for its permanent 80% discounts), Rip Curl (one of the OG Aussie surf brands) and Oboz.

👉 What happened: During the peak of the pandemic, KMD Brands was hit haaaard. Between store shut-downs, nobody needing a puffer jacket (we were all inside) and minimal travel, KMD Brands saw a 40% drop in its full year net profit.

👉 What else: But KMD Brands is all about the silver lining. It had a big big revival with August sales up 44%. And now, it has plans for Kathmandu to take baaaaaby steps into the US and Canada.

What's the key learning?

💡 The international expansion of a physical store network is not for the faint-hearted. You need to think about:

• Building and marketing the brand to a new set of customers
• Creating a new logistics strategy
• Scaling up a whole new workforce

💡 Kathmandu is well aware of the challenges because it isn’t the first time it has ventured overseas. It opened stores in the UK and Europe in 2003 but shut them down in 2015 to focus on its core in Australia and NZ.

💡This time around, Kathmandu will enter new markets with baby steps. It already relaunched Kathmandu in Europe earlier this year with the help of Rip Curl's global team and will look to do the same with the frosty North American winter soon.

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