National retailer launches new store in Liebig Street

The Liebig Street store opened on Friday and stocks its women's and men's collections, with a small kids and home offering.

Country Road retail operations general manager Lindsay Baggaley said it had been looking for a suitable store in the city for the past six months.

She said Country Road had established successful stores in resort and regional locations and had a loyal south-west customer base, many who travelled to its nearest store in Geelong to shop.

"As a large coastal city Warrnambool is a major tourist hub which sees it experience strong seasonal growth," Ms Baggaley said. "We also recognised that our closest store is over two and half hours' drive so we want to bring Country Road to our customers."

Ms Baggaley said Country Road wanted to be in the city's main shopping area and the Liebig Street site, which is 185 square metres, provided the right location and size. The store's trading area is 140 square metres.

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She said Warrnambool customers shared its delight in opening a store in the city.

"During set up over the past few days we've encountered many customers stopping past the store and sharing their excitement to shop with us," she said.

"We are all very excited to welcome our customers to our new store. We hope that they enjoy the new space and get to meet and connect with the CR Crew. We welcome all members of the family including pets, we are a pet friendly store."

She said the opening day included free coffees and live acoustic music, providing Warrnambool shoppers with a "really special experience".

The store employs eight team members with more staff to be hired in the coming months. "As we go into our peak trade we will be recruiting Christmas casuals and as the store trades and is successful, we will welcome more CR Crew to the team," she said.

Country Road previously had a manufacturing business in Camperdown, but it closed down in the late '80s.

It follows the opening of iconic sneaker retailer Platypus Shoes which began trading at Gateway Plaza on Thursday.

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