Kmart’s Anko to open two more stores in the Philippines as part of push into new markets

Kmart’s booming house brand Anko is set to open more stores in the Philippines as part of the group’s push into international markets.

Speaking to The Nightly a day after announcing his retirement, outgoing Kmart Group managing director Ian Bailey revealed plans to open two more stores in Metro Manila over the first half of 2025.

It comes just a month after it opened its first pilot store in the Philippines — and Asia — under the Anko brand.

“When it comes to opening stores, our focus at the moment is purely the Philippines, we really want to figure out how to make that business right . . . that’s the first step on our longer term journey of opening stores throughout Asia,” Mr Bailey said.

Mr Bailey will be succeeded by Kmart chief financial officer Aleksandra Spaseska when he retires in April to take up the newly-created role of chair of Anko Global.

He says his immediate focus will be to work closely with Anko Global chief executive Arjun Puri and Ms Spaseska to grow Anko sales outside Australia and New Zealand.

He said this growth would be through the stores in the Philippines, as well as its partnerships with Canadian department store Hudson’s Bay and US toy giant Mattel to roll out wooden toys across 1000 Walmart stores. Anko had opened a store in Seattle but that closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“My task is really as a support role more than a lead role, with Arjun and Aleks taking the lead positions,” Mr Bailey said.

“We’ve had some really good reaction from the partners we’ve partnered with as well as the end consumers who are buying our products in the different countries.

“But we’re still so early. If there’s one thing we need to be really good at in the next period of time it’s learning really quickly and becoming really attuned to each of the markets we’re in.”

Anko — an acronym for “a new kind of” — was established as Kmart’s own brand in 2019 and now accounts for 85 per cent of the discount department store’s sales.

Reflecting on his nine-year stint at the top job that transformed Kmart — owned by Perth-headquartered conglomerate Wesfarmers — from a laggard third-placed discount department store to one of Australia’s major retail success stories.

“We set ourselves an ambition when I got into the role in 2016 . . . of getting to $10 billion (in sales) but we didn’t how we were going to do that,” Mr Bailey said.

“What we got really good at is delivering increasingly good products at increasingly lower prices and that’s a really hard thing to get really, really good at.

“(Consumers have) rewarded us by shopping with us more frequently, we’ve got all different age groups, demographics shopping with us now.”

Kmart Group — which combines Kmart and Target — was again the star performer for the conglomerate in the 2024 financial year, delivering a 25 per cent lift in profit to $958 million on just a 4.4 per cent increase in revenue to $11.1 billion.

“We’ve increased the value of the business enormously, which has played out in the Wesfarmers share price,” Mr Bailey said.

“I think there’s always unfinished business, I think every business is a work in progress because the world is dynamic and there’s always opportunities to continue to evolve.”

He added that Ms Spaseska was “well-placed to take what we’ve built today and take it to the next level”.

“She brings incredible integrity, incredible intelligence, really great strategic skills, a deep understanding of retail and Kmart,” he said.

“Like most really good executives, she’s been developing like crazy and improving like crazy over the past five years and she’s ready.”