Myer
Pedestrians walk past a Myer department store in Sydney March 10, 2006. Reuters/Tim Wimborne

If Australian Geographic would close by 2017 unless a new owner is found, a British retail giant is coming to Australia in the same year. John Lewis plans to open six Myer stores in the country next year.

Yahoo News reports that the first John Lewis Myer store in Australia would open in Warringah in Sydney. After Sydney, another Myer store in Perth will open in February 2017.

Besides Sydney’s Northern Beaches Warringah Mall retail centre and Perth, Myer would also open in Melbourne’s CBD, Melbourne’s Chadstone and Sydney’s Bondi Junction, reports Sydney Morning Herald.

Myer is one of the 30 businesses trading under John Lewis. Katie Jordan, development head of John Lewis International, says there is real synergy between Myer’s customer base and the retailer is the perfect partner for its first shop-in-shops in Australia.

“We’re delighted to be expanding our international presence and bringing John Lewis to new countries around the world, both through physical collaborations and by expanding our online international delivery destinations,” says Jordan.

Opening a physical store in Australia is part of John Lewis’s bigger strategy to set up operations in other countries. But for Myers, it is another step toward its multi-year revival plan which targets to make its department store more relevant and its main competitor, David Jones, as well as other chain retailers and online operators that had been taking away business from Myer for years now.

Myer will offer bedding, bed linen, doonas, throws, cushions, quilts and bed accessories, dinnerware, glassware, table linen and cutlery, decorator items such as vases, frames, bowls, candle holders, light shades and bathroom accessories.

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