Mayne's Upmarket Makeover
Sun Herald
Sunday May 9, 1999
THE Joyce Mayne discount chain stores will move upmarket in one of Australia's biggest retailing overhauls.
The super-stores will be renamed Domayne as they are refurbished into a "new lifestyle retail concept" with a Country Road look, according to owner Gerry Harvey, chairman of Harvey Norman.
The first Domayne, pitched at young, middle-range to affluent couples, will open on Friday week in Liverpool, followed by a store in Newcastle a fortnight later.
Mr Harvey said the refit "would cost more than Harvey Norman did" when it dropped Discounts from its name and moved upmarket, and new stores were planned as well.
Meanwhile, Domayne and the old Joyce Mayne stores would co-exist but "they will have nothing in common" and would advertise separately, Mr Harvey said.
There are seven Joyce Mayne stores in NSW but Mr Harvey predicted Domaynes would be "springing up everywhere, like Harvey Norman".
The Auburn store will be updated by Christmas but there is a snag with the other Sydney stores.
"We want to try to upgrade the others but at this stage we can't figure out how," he admitted.
There was "nothing like" the concept anywhere else and he had taken "a bit here and a bit there" from the best approaches overseas.
A similar inspiration from the US originally prompted the "category killer" computer stores, which capture the market in a particular category at the expense of department stores.
These stores have propelled the price of Harvey Norman shares, making it Australia's most successful retailer.
Mr Harvey said: "Joyce Mayne was a downmarket discounter. Domayne will have a more hippy, modern atmosphere. The colour, layout and type of merchandising will be quite different."
The new stores would include furniture, electricals and computers, like Harvey Norman, but would be "presented differently".
"They'll be more modern and colourful and concentrate on technology, the Internet and computer side," Mr Harvey said. "It will be as up to the minute as possible."
The furniture would be "a bit of Freedom, a bit of Ikea, tending to lifestyle".
Domayne would take business away from "everyone" but "I hope it will make the market bigger. I want them to walk in and see a lounge and say `I've got to get that'," he said.
Ironically, the Liverpool store is next to a Harvey Norman.
"People will be able to comparison shop," he said. "They might see something in one and not in the other. They're in opposition because they're different franchisees.
"I often go into a (Harvey Norman) shop and half an hour later I'm in another one and see the same people. And I say, `What are you doing here?' and they say, `Oh, we're just looking around trying to get a better price. We might see something we like better'."
© 1999 Sun Herald