Glue Store’s recipe for keeping customers sticky

After years of steady growth, sales of the Australian fashion retailer Glue Store were going backwards and the company was losing wholesale accounts as large chains such as Myer cut costs by bypassing middlemen and sourcing stock directly from overseas.

Hilton Seskin, who owns Glue Store and the Topshop Topman franchise in Australia through Next Athleisure, adopted an “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” approach, taking on Zara and H&M by snapping up the exclusive Australian franchise for Topshop and Topman from Britain’s Arcadia Group.

Seskin, the founder of Rebel Sport, also overhauled the business model at Glue Store, relaunching the brand and introducing exclusive labels such as British brands Miss Selfridge and Glamorous in womenswear and Dutch label Minimum and Le Coq Sportif in menswear.