• Made-to-measure suit brand InStitchu is eyeing the Australian market for further growth.
• Due to the pandemic, the company had to shelve plans for a UK expansion and a London showroom.
• “Now we’re really focused on domestic growth and where we’ve seen future organic growth is weddings,” said co-founder James Wakefield.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

After pulling the plug indefinitely on their UK launch last April due to COVID-19, the founders of Australian made-to-measure suits startup InStitchu reset their expansion strategy to focus on the local market.

The success of the New York showroom launch in 2017 and a growing loyal customer base in the UK prompted James Wakefield and Robin McGown to look at launching a physical presence in the heart of London.

“As a result of analysing our online sales and website traffic, we saw that there was definitely an opportunity to open in London,” Wakefield told Business Insider Australia.

“We actually signed a lease and were due to open in London in April but then COVID hit and so we had to very quickly make a decision, and we pulled the plug on the UK expansion strategy in the interim. We were able to do so without any significant financial impact.”

With too many unknowns on the table but a drive to keep growing the nine-year-old business, James and Robin pivoted and put plans in place to serve their Australian customers first and foremost. They redeveloped InStitchu’s flagship store in David Jones Elizabeth Street in March 2020, opened a Woollahra showroom in May and simultaneously launched womenswear into all showrooms.

“Opening two new showrooms and launching womenswear during a global pandemic was definitely going against the grain. Other retailers were closing stores and letting staff go but we decided to open new showrooms and launch an entire new product category,” said Wakefield.

“Now we’re really focused on domestic growth and where we’ve seen future organic growth is weddings. Rather than being cancelled, weddings have been postponed so really, we have two years worth of weddings taking place over the next few months. As a result, we are now back trading at pre-COVID levels with a huge pipeline of sales building”.

InStitchu’s business model was designed to avoid the pain points of traditional retail – namely, expensive leases and large quantities of stock. InStitchu use their digital strategy to drive appointments to the showrooms, rather than an expensive shopping centre lease. This strategy means they can scale up and scale down their customer acquisition cost during peaks and troughs.

“Our custom and made-to-order elements were a huge strength during [the pandemic] because if you look at other retail brands back when COVID was first having an impact in March last year, they would have just had new season stock arrive, and would have just placed orders for next seasons stock.” said Wakefield.

“For us, when sales took a huge hit we weren’t sitting on any stock, we could just scale back our market spend and tread water for a period of time. We didn’t let a single employee go throughout COVID which is something that we’re really proud of and the teams proud of.”

As Australia moves into some semblance of normality, the InStitchu team have an influx of postponed weddings to cater for and a loyal customer base returning to refresh their wardrobe as they return to the office.

“They’re not going to work in boardshorts and a t-shirt,” said Wakefield.

“They’re going in tailored chinos, a nice tailored shirt, a tailored blazer or sportcoat- that’s what the casualisation of the workforce is. And that’s what institchu is.”

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