👉 Background: Lovisa is the Australian jewellery chain that was founded back in 2010. It has quickly grown in popularity by selling trendy, yet affordable earrings, necklaces, and bracelets. Since 2010, it has grown to over 1,000 retail stores in over 50 countries.

‍👉 What happened: Now, Lovisa has reported an increase of 14% to their annual revenue compared to the previous year, and investors are loving these shiny results. On top of that, Lovisa is dialling up their global expansion after a major jewellery competitor ‘Claires’ filed for bankruptcy this August.

‍👉 What else: Even though Claires is being rescued by a private equity firm, it is still set to close hundreds of its stores across the US, Canada and Europe - the same markets Lovisa has been nurturing for the past year. So now, it’s all-systems-go for an opportunistic expansion.

‍What's the key learning?

‍💡Opportunistic expansion is when a company takes advantage of external events and market shifts to grow in new markets.

💡While Lovisa is already operating in many of the same markets as Claire's, the sudden downfall became a huge opportunity for Lovisa to capture new market share by quickly opening new stores in similar locations.

💡Lovisa isn’t the only company to turn a competitor’s misfortune into a growth opportunity. In 2012, Hungary’s national airline Malev suddenly went out of business. Just seven hours later, popular budget airline Ryanair swooped in to announce the creation of a new base in Budapest, effectively replaced 31 flight routes in and out of Budapest that its competitor used to own.