Foodtown was a New Zealand supermarket chain owned by Progressive Enterprises. All the stores were rebranded as Countdown by the end of 2011. The supermarkets tended to be integrated with a shopping mall, rather than being stand-alone stores.
Countdown is a New Zealand full-service supermarket chain and subsidiary of Woolworths NZ, itself a subsidiary of Australia's Woolworths Limited. Countdown stores are normally larger than the average New Zealand supermarket. The first Countdown store opened in 1981 and the chain has expanded to 180 stores as of 2018. It is the largest single supermarket chain in New Zealand in terms of number of stores, although the rival Four Square chain has a larger number of premises including smaller retail stores in rural areas.
The City of Yarra is a local government area in Victoria, Australia in the inner eastern and northern suburbs of Melbourne. It has an area of 19.5 square kilometres (7.5 sq mi), and at the 2016 Census it had a population of 86,657. The City of Yarra was formed in 1994 as a result of the amalgamation of the former Cities of Richmond, Collingwood, Fitzroy, and parts of Carlton North and parts of Alphington and Fairfield.
Woolworths Group Limited is a major Australian company with extensive retail interest throughout Australia and New Zealand. It is the second largest company in Australia by revenue, after Perth-based retail-focused conglomerate Wesfarmers, and the second largest in New Zealand. In addition, Woolworths Group is the largest takeaway liquor retailer in Australia, the largest hotel and gaming poker machine operator in Australia, and was the 19th largest retailer in the world in 2008.
OPSM is a retailer of eye glasses in Australia and New Zealand, with locations in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia as well. The company was founded in Sydney in 1932, and publicly listed in 1953. Italian eyewear giant Luxottica acquired a controlling interest in 2003. At that time the company operated 461 stores under three brands in Australia, 35 stores in New Zealand, 75 stores in Hong Kong and 12 in Singapore, and 12 in Malaysia. Recently, OPSM opened a flagship store in Hawthorn, Victoria called 'Eyehub', bridging the gap between optometry and ophthalmology. In July 2003, the Italian Luxottica Group purchased all OPSM shares and in February 2005 it delisted OPSM Group shares from the Australian Stock Exchange.
Country Road is a middle market clothing retailer located in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. South African company Woolworths Holdings Limited is the ultimate parent company of Country Road, whose offer of $17/share was accepted on 4 September 2014. The brand has a tiered customer loyalty program which enables members of each tier to receive special offers and early invitations to sales based on their spend with the brand.
Dick Smith Holdings Limited was an Australian chain of retail stores that sold consumer electronics goods, hobbyist electronic components, and electronic project kits. The chain expanded successfully into New Zealand and unsuccessfully into several other countries. The company was founded in Sydney in 1968 by Dick Smith and owned by him and his wife until they sold 60% to Woolworths Limited in 1980, the remaining 40% two years later. The company closed in 2016, within several years of its acquisition by Anchorage Capital Partners.
Aéropostale, Inc. is an American shopping mall-based specialty retailer of casual apparel and accessories, principally targeting ages 14-to-17-year-old teens through its Aéropostale stores and 4-to-12-year-old children through its P.S. from Aéropostale stores. Aéropostale maintains control over its proprietary brands by designing, sourcing, marketing and selling all of its own merchandise. The company operates Aéropostale stores in the United States and Puerto Rico and the e-commerce site aeropostale.com. Aéropostale's licensees operate Aéropostale and P.S. from Aéropostale locations in the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. The first Aéropostale stores were opened in 1987 by R H Macy & Co. in Thousand Oaks, California; and Short Hills, New Jersey.
Solomon Lew is an Australian businessman, and one of Australia's richest men. His principal commercial activities involve importing apparel, toys and other goods into Australia from China and share market investments, principally in retail companies.
Harvey Norman is a large Australian-based, multi-national retailer of furniture, bedding, computers, communications and consumer electrical products. It mainly operates as a franchise, with the main brand and all company-operated stores owned by ASX-listed Harvey Norman Holdings Limited. As of 2016, there are 280 company-owned and franchised stores in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and South-East Asia operating under the Harvey Norman, Domayne and Joyce Mayne brands in Australia, and under the Harvey Norman brand overseas.
Vicinity Limited, trading as Vicinity Centres (VCX), and previously known as Federation Centres, and Centro Properties Group is an Australian Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) company specialising in ownership and management of Australian shopping centres. With approximately $6.9 billion of shopping centres under management.
Octaviar Limited is an Australian diversified investment company in the funds management and financial services sectors. The company, once valued at $2.4 billion was forced to sell its main asset, the Stella Group, in February 2008 and in March 2008 the value of the company had fallen to just $480 million.
Colorado Group Limited was an Australian public company that operates a number of retail clothing chains. Major brands include Colorado Adventurewear, Mathers, Williams the Shoemen, JAG, Diana Ferrari, and Pairs. The company is based in Brisbane, Queensland with an office in Cremorne, Victoria. The history of the company dates back over 140 years to the 1864 founding of Williams in Ballarat, Victoria. In 2011, the company became known as Fusion Retail Brands.
Wattyl is an Australian-based company that specialises in the manufacturing and marketing of architectural and decorative paints and special purpose and protective coatings. The company currently operates in Australia and New Zealand where it is the second largest brand in the architectural and decorative paints market after Dulux.
Coles Group Limited is an Australian public company operating numerous retail chains. It was Australia's second-largest retailer, behind Woolworths Limited, until it was acquired by Western Australian public company Wesfarmers, with transfer of ownership on 23 November 2007. The corporate operations ceased at head office in Melbourne from that point, instead based at Wesfarmers head office in Perth.
OFX, previously known as OzForex is an Australian online foreign exchange and payments company with headquarters in Sydney. The company provides money transfer services to Travelex, MoneyGram, Xero, ING Direct, and Macquarie International Money Transfers as well as individuals such as migrants and expatriates and small businesses.
Smiggle is an Australian-based retail store chain that sells stationery and related accessories. It was founded in Melbourne by Stephen Meurs and Peter Pausewang in 2003 and acquired by the Just Group in July 2007. As of February 2016, the chain has stores located across Australia (135), New Zealand (23), Singapore (17), United Kingdom (100), Hong Kong (14), Malaysia (4) and the Republic of Ireland (3). Smiggle is renowned for its use of vibrant bold colours and quirky graphics on most of its branded products.
McConnell Dowell is a major infrastructure construction company founded in New Zealand in 1961. In 2003 it became a wholly owned subsidiary of Aveng, which is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in South Africa. McConnell Dowell operates in New Zealand, Australia, Asia and the Middle East.
Collins Foods Limited is a publicly-listed Australian company focused in restaurant operations. It is best known for operating restaurant chains KFC and Sizzler in Australia and parts of Asia. The company also owns Snag Stand, a fast casual restaurant chain founded in 2011 by businessperson Philip Blanco. Collins Foods has since closed down all Snag Stand stores.
