Zarrb to close down all its stores despite sales

Homeware and gifts retailer, Zarrb, is closing its chain of stores including two in Tauranga.
Some of the 12 stores were making good money, including Tauranga, but founder and chief executive Leanne Allan decided that overall Zarrb's performance was not strong enough.
"It's basically the recession. The foot traffic and number of sales are up but the average amount of the purchases has gone down.
"We track our sales on a daily basis, and people are not opening their wallets wide enough," said Mrs Brown, who started her designer decor business 18 years ago. She introduced the Zarrb brand in 2008.
Speaking from her warehouse in the Hawke's Bay, Mrs Brown said stock was going out as fast as ever - "it's crazy, but it still doesn't save us".
She said turnover slowed from Christmas 2008 onwards. "Everyone in the retail sector has felt it. One of the problems is that rents haven't changed, and in some cases rent is outweighing sales."
She said landlords had to start looking after their retail tenants. "Rather than having someone close down, they should find out where the business is at."
The Tauranga Zarrb stores, in Grey St and at Bayfair Shopping Centre, will be closing within four months. Mrs Allan hasn't yet set an actual date, but she indicated it would be either the end of August or end of September.
The downtown Tauranga store, which has been operating for nearly four years, was one of Zarrb's biggest, along with Masterton and New Plymouth.
Zarrb only moved into Bayfair last September and had a high-profile corner location next to the western mall entrance and near the busy Countdown supermarket.
Bayfair centre manager Andrew Wadsworth said it was common knowledge that the store was closing, and he was talking with Zarrb about when it will happen.
"The performance of the store was strong and we were happy. But obviously something has happened," said Mr Wadsworth.
He said that because of the refurbishment taking place at Bayfair, tenancy interest had picked up and "we will get the store leased pretty quickly."
Zarrb, which designed furniture and giftware and had them made in China, is closing its stores in Albany, Henderson, Whakatane, Rotorua, New Plymouth, Masterton, Palmerston North, Napier, Hastings and Havelock North, as well as in Tauranga.
 Mrs Allan re-branded her business from Inside Out, Bella Veve to Zarrb, promoting itself as an affordable designer brand of furniture, decor and giftware.
Meanwhile, specialist outdoors retailer Kathmandu is moving into the 600 sq m store left vacant in Elizabeth St by Ezibuy.
Kathmandu has had a temporary store next door for six months. But the group's general manager marketing, Paul Stern, said that store was too small.
"We needed more room to display our full basecamp range, and we have made the decision to invest in a permanent store," he said.
Kathmandu is maintaining its outlet at Fraser Cove Shopping Centre, and it will be opening its new Elizabeth St store in the middle of this month.
Mr Stern said having two stores in a non-metro area "would take a bit from each other but we believe the demand is there."