It’s called the rag trade, but Australia’s multi-billion dollar fashion industry is doing its bit to enrich Australia’s economy. Its success is due to many factors, but a common thread is the role of Chartered Accountants. 
 
Story Tony Malkovic 
 
You don’t have to be a dedicated follower of fashion to realise that the fashion industry is big business in Australia. For instance, the frocks almost upstaged the footy at the Brownlow Medal count the other month, as players’ partners took to the red carpet to showcase the work of Australia’s best designers. 
 
And in case you hadn’t noticed, there wasn’t one, but three, fashion weeks staged across the country in the past month or two – in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australia’s clothing industry racked up more than $20 billion in retail sales in 2005-06. 
 
The industry might be chic and cheeky, but it’s hard work… and can present particular challenges for Chartered Accountants. When Amy Gilfillan finished her accounting degree in 2004, she wasn’t sure where it would lead. 
 
“I always hoped I’d be able to combine a finance background with my passion for fashion,” says Gilfillan. 
 
“And then a friend notified me about a job that came up at sass & bide and I thought I’d give it a go and see where it led’.” The sass & bide label was started by Sarah-Jane Clarke (Sass) and Heidi Middleton (Bide) and soon developed a reputation for its sexy hipster denim jeans. But it has since grown from being an underground label to being more mainstream, but still with its own distinctive quirky style. 
 
Amy got the job – and it soon led to her being promoted to the company‘s international account manager, a job that can take her around the world. 
 
“sass & bide is a global brand and we have representation everywhere – Asia, Japan, the USA, Canada, South America, South Africa, all through the Middle East, Italy, France, Spain, Scandinavia, the UK,” she says. “I’m responsible for selling the product. From the time the product is designed, to the time it arrives in any one of our 300-plus boutiques in the world – it’s my concern.” Gilfillan’s rise in the rag trade is all the more remarkable when you consider she’s only 24. In fact, she’s still studying with theInstitute for her chartered status. 
 
“I’m doing the management accounting module at the moment and then I’ve got audit as my final module. I’ve got a sixmonth break and expect to qualify in March,” she says. 
 
The combination of fashion and travel is glamorous, but it’s also hard work. “We do four collections a year,” Gilfillan explains. “I was in Rodeo Drive last week, and then travelled on to Vegas because I was selling our spring/summer 2008 collection tobuyers and stockists of our brand. 
 
“The large American department stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus were there, as well as a significant international contingent such as the buyers for Harrods and Selfridges who were there to view the collections before New York Fashion Week.” 
 
Number Crunching  
“It can be glamorous, but there are late night emails and phone conversations due to international time differences and I am still involved in a lot of number crunching. “For instance, I manage my own budgets and need to know what inventory levels I am sitting on, how to allocate my sales and ensure margins are kept consistent over each financial year. It’s an incredibly broad role, which I love. 
 
“It includes everything from selling the product to shipping the product, dealing with import and export issues, managing our stock levels to creating ideas to drive sales. Gilfillan didn’t exactly start on the factory floor in the fashion business, but she says it’s an industry where it helps to be versatile. “When I came to sass & bide I was the graduate accountant,” she says. “My work involved accounts payable, accounts receivable and lots of administration and reconciliations. 
 
“I always thought I’d be in the finance side of things but now I’ve moved over into the sales side and thoroughly enjoy it. “The skills I learned during my time in the finance department at sass & bide have been invaluable and continue to help my dayto day role as international account manager. “That’s one of the reasons I am so committed to completing my Chartered Accountants Program, as it is such a fantastically broad qualification that has helped me through accounting and now influences decisions I make in my current role. 
 
“I think it helps being young. And because it’s such a young and dynamic company, you can work your way up quickly “One of the highlights of my job 
 
now would be seeing the clothes six to nine months before they hit the stores, so knowing what’s happening in the fashion industry and being able to influence it as well.” 
 
The sass & bide label was started by Sarah-Jane Clarke (Sass) and Heidi Middleton (Bide) and soon developed a reputation for its sexy hipster denim jeans. But it has since grown from being an underground label to being more mainstream, but still with its own distinctive quirky style. 
 
Exciting  
Ashley Gardner says working in the retail fashion industry isn’t as glamorous as people might think, but it’s full on. “It’s a business that’s constantly on the move. There’s always something going on, so it’s very exciting,” says the Melbourne-based Chartered Accountant. Gardner was appointed chief financial officer of the Just Group earlier this year, and has barely had time to catch his breath. “I joined in January and since I joined I had the half-year results to deliver, which were the first set of results for our new CEO and myself,” he explains. 
 
“Then it was straight into a $65 million share buyback which was very successful and oversubscribed; and then straight into the $29 million acquisition of the Smiggle chain – so it’s been pretty busy seven or eight months.” 
 
Just Group is a fashion retailer which started as Just Jeans, but has since grown to include four other wellknown Australian brands – Jay Jays, Portmans, Jacqui E, Dotti and PeterAlexander – with annual sales of some $760 million. 
 
It has more than 800 stores in Australia and New Zealand and another 14 in South Africa that it operates with a joint venture partner. 
 
“Retail fashion is non-stop,” says Gardner. “It pretty much changes every two weeks, with new product going into the stores. And it’s totally self-generated; we don’t buy other people’s product and sell it based on their marketing campaigns. 
 
“The good thing about fashion apparel is that it’s always on the move, and every product we buy, we sell, it’s just a question of what price we sell it for,” he says. 
 
ACQUISITION  
“It all carries our brand which means we own the customer experience and the way the brand’s presented in the various channels, whether it be on billboards or TV or in the windows of the stores.” 
 
As CFO, Gardner is responsible for the group’s finances, corporate strategy and investor relations. He’s also responsible for the recent acquisition of the Smiggle business. 
 
It’s the first time the Just Group has moved outside fashion apparel, but there’s a connection. 
 
“Basically it’s a fashion stationery business involving notebooks, calculators and pencils and those sort of things and making them pretty cool for the kids and putting a nice twist on it from a fashion perspective,” Gardner says. 
 
“Although it’s stationery and not apparel, there are a lot of crossovers. And most importantly for us it’s got a lot of growth in it. There are six or seven stores opening over the next few months and we’re hoping to open 10 by the end of this financial year. 
 
“Our thinking is based around what do we have to do to support the business from a supply chain perspective and the distribution is a little bit different. The units are a lot smaller and the price points are a lot lower. 
 
“Beyond that, it’s just the normal challenge of trying to integrate an existing business that’s got 20 stores, so we’ve got to bring staff across, induct them and engage those staff because they’re the success of the business.” 
 
Gardner is experienced at tying together such loose threads involving a fashion business. Previously, he worked with Country Road for six years. In that time he was its CFO, company secretary and was also an executive director. 
 
He was responsible for finance, treasury, IT, supply chain/logistics and concessions. He also helped guide the company through a difficult period in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and the ultimate closure of 20 Country Road stores in the US. 
 
Gardner started in fashion after seven years with Ernst & Young, originally based in Melbourne, then Canada. 
 
“When I came back I had itchy feet, as you often have when you come back from travelling,” he says. “So I spent 12 or 14 months with Ernst & Young travelling around the country teaching people how to audit, as well as the technical skills – project management, negotiation skills, all those sorts of things.” 
 
When the opportunity came up at Country Road, he felt he was ready for a change. “Ruth Picker, who was my boss at Ernst & Young at the time, basically said I should decide whether I wanted to be a partner or a CFO and I thought I’d give the CFO a go and see where that would take me,” he recalls. “I didn’t think I’d get there when I did, but I got there reasonably quickly and I haven’t looked back.” 
 
So what skills does he think a Chartered Accountant needs to suit up in the world of retail fashion? 
 
“I think they need to be pretty accepting of a very changing environment,” Gardner says. “Nothing ever stays the same for too long here. So as a finance guy, you’re constantly trying to keep up here with what’s changed, as well as help the business and train the business from a financial management perspective because it’s a very creative environment and numbers aren’t their strength. 
 
“So you have to be able to communicate and help them manage their budgets and achieve their objectives and understand where they’re at. 
 
“You’ve got to be able to deal with a variety of different people who have limited financial expertise or experience or training.” 
 
DOWN TO EARTH  
Ciaron Murphy is the financial controller at the Australian headquarters of the Esprit fashion house, and has a down-to-earth approach to the retail fashion industry. “I don’t think it’s that glamorous,” he says. “Like all jobs, retail is not a glamorous industry. Retail is a very tough, very detaildriven area of finance,” he says. 
 
“There’s nothing in retail – from an accounting point of view – that is technically complicated. We buy stuff, we sell it, and then we get the cash off the customers. “Whereas, if you’re in a bank or something, you can be doing very complex accounting transactions. 
 
“So what we do is easy, it’s just the scale of what we do. We have so much going on at one time – and that’s the hardest and most interesting part of the job.” Esprit is a global brand that sells women’s wear, menswear, youth and kids’ fashions, as well as shoes, accessories and cosmetics. 
 
The label might have started some 40 years ago with its US founders selling clothes out of the back of a station wagon, but there’s no way it would fit into a vehicle now. The company has 640 retail stores in 40 countries, designs some 20,000 products a year for its 12 main product lines and is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange. 
 
“I report to Hong Kong, so I’m responsible for everything to do with the (Australasian) finance department in terms of all the normal stuff – local preparation of accounts, tax returns, internal controls, management accounts, all those sorts of things,” Murphy explains. 
 
“And I also have responsibility – jointly with the head of retail – for the leasing process for the whole of Australia and New Zealand. 
 
“We have more than 70 stores and more than 40 concessions and we turned over nearly $100 million of retail sales last year, and we also have the wholesale business, around the $8 million mark.” 
 
ADAPTABLE 
Like Gardner, Murphy says it’s not just attending to the bottom line figures that are important for a Chartered Accountant in fashion retailing, often it’s the softer skills that count. 
 
“I think you have to be well organised, you have to be adaptable, you have to be able to get on with people – that’s the key thing,” he says. 
 
“You need the ability to get on with all types of people while making sure the right thing is done from the financial side of things. 
 
“Because we are an expanding business, I think the challenge is just keeping on top of all the stuff while expanding the business. And I think that would be similar to any business that was growing, whether you are in retail or in other businesses. 
 
“The key is making sure that your core business is ticking over properly and that everything is being done well, while organising the opportunities for expanding your business.” 
 
Murphy, a Chartered Accountant with the Institute of England and Wales, started his career in retail fashion in England in the 1990s. “When I was in Chartered, probably similar to everyone, I had different clients and wasn’t sure which way to go and I saw an opportunity,” he says. 
 
“I originally spent a year in internal audit when I left practice and it was with Arcadia, which is one of the UK’s biggest fashion retailers. 
 
“What probably appealed to me most was just the size of Arcadia, it was a Top 100 listed company and I thought these guys are a company that’s going places.” That might have been the impetus, but what also suited him was the energy and enthusiasm he found. 
 
“It is, for a lot of people, a dream industry to work in, and you get a lot of people who wanted to be a fashion designer or wantedto work in the industry for their whole life. So you have that vibe to the company.“It was a fantastic place to work in as a young guy – really good fun, really social, huge amounts of energy. 
 
“I used to look at my mates in engineering companies and think ‘I’m so glad I’m not stuck out in the middle of nowhere in a plant’.” 
 
But he says there’s a world of difference between being in the world of fashion design – with its many well-known larger than lifecharacters – and the more commercially focused world of fashion retailing. “It’s like any business, passion is a fantastic thing and passionate people often have their own style, and they’re what make businesses tick,” he says. 
 
“But it’s making sure that the passion doesn’t interfere with the delivery. That’sthe challenge for any manager in a passionate business, making sure that we’re all passionate, but making sure we still focus on what is actually the business deliverable.”