Mountain Designs

Mountain Designs
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryRetail
Founded1975; 49 years ago (1975) in Brisbane, Australia
FounderRick White
Headquarters
The Hague Edit this on Wikidata
ProductsOutdoor clothing and equipment
ParentSpotlight Retail Group
Mountain Designs brand clothing in an Anaconda store in Canberra

Mountain Designs is an outdoor clothing and equipment business based in Australia. They sell hiking, rockclimbing and general outdoor and recreational equipment. The company stocks a variety of international and local brands, as well as their own brands of clothing, accessories, sleepwear and bags.[1]

History

The business was founded by Rick White in Brisbane in 1975.[2]

By 2004, Mountain Designs was operating a factory, head office and factory outlet in Brisbane. It had 29 regular stores: three in Queensland, seven in New South Wales, six in Victoria, seven in Western Australia, one in South Australia, one in the Australian Capital Territory, and four in New Zealand. At this stage, the chain was still yet to open in Auckland.[3]

Mountain Designs pulled out of the New Zealand market in 2014, citing a slow economy and a saturated market.[4] At the time of the announcement, it had 12 stores around the country,[5] including three in Auckland.[6]

In January 2018, the chain closed all its stores and transitioned to online-only retailing; it had 45 stores across Australia by this time.[7] In March of that year, the Spotlight Retail Group purchased the company for an undisclosed sum.[2][8]

In April 2019, Mountain Designs relaunched its e-commerce website. It also began to sell a selection of its range through about 60 of Spotlight's Anaconda outdoor stores.[9]

References

  1. ^ "Mountain Designs". mountaindesigns.com. Spotlight Retail Group.
  2. ^ a b Koehn, Emma (29 March 2018). "Troubled outdoor retailer Mountain Designs bought by Spotlight Group". Smart Company. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  3. ^ "Store Locations - Australia and New Zealand". mountaindesigns.co.nz. Mountain Design Holdings. Archived from the original on 11 October 2004.
  4. ^ Moir, Jo (6 August 2014). "Outdoor chain closes due to 'saturated' market". Stuff. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
  5. ^ "Mountain Designs to exit NZ shores". stuff.co.nz. Nelson Mail. 7 August 2014.
  6. ^ "Stores in North Island - New Zealand". mountaindesigns.com. Mountain Design Holdings. Archived from the original on 1 June 2013.
  7. ^ Koehn, Emma (11 January 2018). "Mountain Designs to close a third of stores in face of "increased competition": Will retail store networks shrink in 2018?". Smart Company. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  8. ^ "Spotlight Group Holdings Acquires Aussie Retail Brand" (PDF). Spotlight Group Holdings. 26 March 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 December 2018. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  9. ^ Blake, Dean (11 April 2019). "Mountain Designs relaunches online". Inside Retail. Archived from the original on 16 April 2019. Retrieved 16 April 2019.