Seasalt dips into international waters with first stand alone store in New Zealand

Cornish brand Seasalt is continuing its store expansion, this time crossing international waters to open its first stand alone store in New Zealand’s Auckland.

This marks the first time Seasalt has opened a store with a franchise partner outside of Europe. The new venture is an extension to its already-existing partnership with New Zealand based retailer, Ballantynes, which became its first wholesale account in 2014.

Paul Hayes, CEO at Seasalt Cornwall, said: "We are very excited about this next stage of growth for Seasalt in New Zealand. We’ve had an incredible response from customers in the country to date, who love the Seasalt story, alongside the creativity and quality in our product. In Ballantynes, we have developed a strong partnership, they share our vision and values and bring essential local market expertise.

"We are confident this deal will build on our existing foundation in the market, accelerate our growth and cements our commitment to invest in high streets across the world."

Seasalt launched its first international concept store, as a branded area within the Ballantynes Christchurch store, in 2021. The new agreement will see Ballantynes become the exclusive distributor for Seasalt across the country and open a number of Seasalt branded stores - in addition to the concessions already available in Ballantynes retail outlets.

The first of the stand alone stores will open this autumn in the Milford Centre, Auckland.

Chief Executive Officer at Ballantynes, Maria O’Halloran, commented: "We are very proud of the relationships that we forge with International Suppliers. Our team appreciate how much they entrust us with their brands and we work hard to nurture them in the New Zealand market. Seasalt is an example of this.

"We are thrilled with the Milford store - it looks fabulous, we know the product will be well received and our Ballantynes team of staff are enjoying getting to know their new Customers. The response has been very positive and we are already excited about our next Seasalt store!"

Earlier this year, amid expansion, Seasalt appointed Mel Wilcox in the newly created role of Chief Information Officer, and Duncan Tennent as its new Director of Strategic Partnerships.