Sep 3, 2026 · 12 min · 8 segments
Send us Fan Mail ASX Investment Opportunity - Michael Hill International Ltd (ASX:MHJ) Gold prices keep pushing higher, currencies swing, and…
Jonathan WaeckerGuest
Andrew MusgraveHost
Now, from a strategic simplification perspective, you closed Medley and 1077 as part of the simplification announced at April's Investor Day, taking a $6.1 million non-cash write-off.
What did that decision teach you about where the group's resources were being spent before?
Yeah, you think about any portfolio brand that gets seduced by a multi-brand strategy.
And you really have to acknowledge that each of those brands requires its own investment, its own capital, its own attention, its own team.
But when I was looking at this business, what I realized was we weren't spending enough time on the crown jewels and we certainly weren't spending enough time on the biggest jewel of them all, which is Michael Hill.
And so it became a really simple decision that we actually need to stop focusing on the brands that aren't delivering us any value.
We need to learn from them because there's a lot of really great lessons in each of them.
In particular, 1077 taught us how to do bespoke jewelry quite well and what that could mean to a customer when we got it right.
But we need to take that experience and extend it across the entire Michael Hill network.
And that's infinitely more powerful than having a standalone brand that requires its own scaffolding.
And online now makes up 8.7% of total sales and grew 10% in Michael Hill on a constant currency basis, well ahead of the physical network.
Look, on the one hand, I'm really pleased that the team was able to show us that growth was possible and 10% growth is quite admirable, given the context.
We have peers that are as high as 20 to 30%, depending on their geographical context.
Now, from a strategic simplification perspective, you closed Medley and 1077 as part of the simplification announced at April's Investor Day, taking a $6.1 million non-cash write-off.
What did that decision teach you about where the group's resources were being spent before?
Yeah, you think about any portfolio brand that gets seduced by a multi-brand strategy.
And you really have to acknowledge that each of those brands requires its own investment, its own capital, its own attention, its own team.
But when I was looking at this business, what I realized was we weren't spending enough time on the crown jewels and we certainly weren't spending enough time on the biggest jewel of them all, which is Michael Hill.
And so it became a really simple decision that we actually need to stop focusing on the brands that aren't delivering us any value.
We need to learn from them because there's a lot of really great lessons in each of them.
In particular, 1077 taught us how to do bespoke jewelry quite well and what that could mean to a customer when we got it right.
But we need to take that experience and extend it across the entire Michael Hill network.
And that's infinitely more powerful than having a standalone brand that requires its own scaffolding.
And online now makes up 8.7% of total sales and grew 10% in Michael Hill on a constant currency basis, well ahead of the physical network.
Look, on the one hand, I'm really pleased that the team was able to show us that growth was possible and 10% growth is quite admirable, given the context.
We have peers that are as high as 20 to 30%, depending on their geographical context.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.