Independent Business Group acquires the Leading Edge retail brands
Independent Business Group has acquired the Leading Edge retail brands and their associated intellectual property, following the administration of Leading Edge Group earlier this year. The brands include Leading Appliances, Leading Edge Computers and Leading Edge Electronics, and they carry 40 years of history in Australian independent retail.
We did not make this decision lightly. A banner is only worth what the retailers behind it have built, and in the case of Leading Edge that is four decades of local stores, local service and customer relationships that a head office cannot create on its own. Our view is that there is still real value in that history and recognition, and that the businesses which earned it deserve a stable home for the next chapter.
Leading Appliances joins the Everyday Home Living network
Leading Appliances becomes part of our Everyday Home Living network. There is no requirement for Leading Appliances stores to rebrand. Stores that have built their local reputation under the Leading Appliances name can keep trading under it, while gaining access to the supplier arrangements, marketing and support that sit behind Everyday Home Living.
Relaunching Leading Edge Computers and Leading Edge Electronics
Leading Edge Computers and Leading Edge Electronics will be relaunched. The relaunch will be built around three things: supplier partnerships, marketing support, and a commercial model designed for independent retailers rather than adapted from a corporate chain.
We want to shape that relaunch with the people who know these banners best. If you have traded under Leading Edge Computers or Leading Edge Electronics, we would like to hear what worked, what did not, and what you would need from a banner to make it worth your while again. That feedback will inform how the relaunched programs are structured.
Other Leading Edge banners, including books and entertainment, may follow where there is market demand.
Our view on multi-banner retailing
Many independent retailers already trade across more than one category, and we think the banner model should reflect that rather than fight it. We see a store-within-a-store approach as a practical way for an independent retailer to add a category, and a second brand, without opening a second shop.
A computer retailer might add a Cartridge World section for printing and consumables. A hardware retailer might add an Everyday Home Living range of appliances. In each case the existing business keeps its identity and its customers, and the additional banner brings its own supplier arrangements and marketing behind it. With the Leading Edge brands now alongside Cartridge World and Everyday Home Living, retailers have more of these combinations to choose from under one group.
Get in touch
If you trade, or have traded, under a Leading Edge banner, or you are a supplier who has worked with these brands, we would like to talk. Contact us to start the conversation, or visit the Leading Edge Group website for more on each of the banners.