Myer has altered one of its planned store closures with the news yesterday says it will keep its department store in Canberra’s Belconnen region but in a smaller format.
The news reverses the 2017 announcement from Myer that it would close down. That decision was made under the previous management led by CEO, Richard Umbers.
The store will instead be refurbished and its size reduced to a two-floor store that will sell “an increased number of new and exclusive brands,” the company said yesterday.
The Westfield Belconnen store was saved after new lease agreements were struck between Myer and The Scentre Group (the old Westfield shopping centre group).
“This is an example of Myer’s customer-first plan in action, where we are looking to work collaboratively and constructively with landlords to reduce space, improve our stores and, most importantly, to enhance our range and brands for our customers,” Myer CEO John King said.
Scentre Group CEO Peter Allen said the decision to reduce Myer’s floor-space would allow other retailers to set up shop at the Westfield Belconnen “which will further enhance the overall customer experience at the centre”.
It keeps the rent coming for Scentre which would have found it hard to fill all the space Myer was planning on vacating.
Myer has a second Canberra department store in the Canberra Centre shopping mall in Civic.
Myer shut its store in Hurstville, Sydney, in 2015, and has more recently closed floors in its Cairns (North Queensland) and Castle Hill stores in Sydney.
Myer shares have jumped from 36 cents in February to its closing price of 67 cents on Tuesday (down 0.6% on the day).
That’s still a long way from the re-listing price of $4.10 in 2009.
