High hopes for Nood model

Nood's new concept store on the corner of Broadway and Khyber Pass Rd, Newmarket. Photo / Natalie Slade

Retailer Jan Cameron is betting on recovery in the homeware sector with the expansion of her nood chain.

Nood will open a new flagship store in Newmarket tonight, and one each in Tauranga and Christchurch by the end of the month.

Three more stores will open in other centres next year as the company seeks to exploit what one analyst sees as a gap in the market in what is hoped to be an improving retail environment.

Nood - an acronym of new objects of desire - already has seven stores around the country selling homeware, giftware and furniture in the mid to upper price bracket.

Chief executive Heidi Barlow said the company had been biding its time since it was established three years ago, just as the economy started to sour for many retailers.

"I think obviously this past year has been a very tough year and we had to make sure the business was a successful model. We've delivered the end-of-year results and we've got confidence in the brand and we said 'let's roll out and expand'," she said.

Pricier homeware chain, Nest, was last month placed in receivership although stores are still open.

Mixed retail data points to a difficult end to the year but nood was hopeful of improvement during 2011.

"Everyone is in the same position, hoping to grab the dollar. I would like to think there's an uplift next year," said Barlow.

Nood has two stores in Auckland central and where there was more than one outlet in a city they were being designed in such a way as to complement each other rather than compete.

An analyst at Coriolis Research, Tim Morris, said the chain had been successful in stretching margins by having items made to order in China.

"The thing they've done that's helped them is private label, so they're not beholden to anyone else. There's not the middleman clipping the ticket," he said. "The other thing they've benefited from has been the resurgence in interest in the classic modernist furniture designs."

There was nobody directly competing against nood, given its range of goods.

Jan Cameron sold the Kathmandu chain for a reported $275 million four years ago and has since bought budget retail stores in Australia and the Dog's Breakfast chain in this country.

Morris said the nood stores worked along similar lines as Kathmandu where customers were attracted by expensive goods but resisted buying - until on sale - and while in-store were tempted to buy cheaper goods.

"She's learned a model which is the Kathmandu model and is applying it to homewares."