Australia's Winning Group expands into New Zealand - as Adairs leaves the market
Wednesday, 13 May 2026
At a time when retail is struggling, chains are shutting down and others are exiting the market, Australian appliance retailer Winnings is expanding into this country.
Winning Group, which has been owned by the Winning family for years but is now in the process of being acquired by private equity, has opened its second retail showroom in Auckland’s Newmarket, and says it hopes to have five operating in the market within the next five years.
That’s a far cry from the bleak story of Australian homewares giant Adairs, that closed its online business and plans to shut all seven of its retail stores in New Zealand by the end of June, and a growing list of established retailers that have succumbed to unfavourable market conditions.
Winning Group general manager Ed Brenac told The Post the appliance retailer, which also has a store in Christchurch, along with an established transport logistics business, sees New Zealand as an attractive market - and somewhere it can target the affluent.
Winnings positions itself as a luxury retailer, servicing architects and designers for new homes.
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The group has 16 showrooms across Australia and generates an annual revenue of A$885.5 million (just over a billion NZD). It opened its first New Zealand site in January, launching with the Christchurch location.
It took over the former Kitchen Things stores to set up its showrooms in both cities, after the company fell into liquidation at the end of last year.
“We've been keeping an eye on the New Zealand market for a while, being there since 2022 with Winning Services, but also Appliances Online, we've spent a lot of time looking at how the market was behaving,” Brenac said.
He said that despite tough conditions for many retailers, there was a clear gap in the market that suited Winning, which positions itself as a premium, top‑end appliance retailer working with architectural designers.
“We’re very clear about the model that works well for us, focused on experience rather than value.”
Winning Appliances has operated in Australia for about 120 years. It entered the New Zealand market in 2021 through Winning Services, opening a 6300sq m Auckland distribution centre for its transport and logistics arm, and moved into retail via e‑commerce with its acquisition of Appliances Online.
It is now focused on establishing a physical bricks-and-mortar presence under the Winnings brand, selling high-end brands such as Gaggenau and The Galley along with medium-to-top-end brands such as SMEG, Miele and Fisher and Paykel. The group also owns bathroom and kitchen retailer Rogerseller.
Brenac said the high-end portion of the market remained largely unaffected by the wider economic downturn and tightening of consumer spending.
Winnings would not provide local sales information, but said the company had seen over double-digit growth for the last three months.
“We've got an indicator of a market we want to be able to achieve, and right now Newmarket is on par, if not starting to exceed, those numbers.”
Brenac said Winnings’ biggest advantage in the market was that it owned its own logistics network, and it had plans to introduce many more top brands to the local market.
“To become more of a staple, the leading premium luxury appliance retailer in New Zealand is absolutely the focus.”
Brenac said there were “plenty of opportunities” for Winnings to grow in New Zealand - and a few challenges - the greatest being operating over the two islands.
“The majority of our operations right now are in the North Island. Our main distribution centre is in the Port of Auckland and our New Zealand head office is in Auckland, so we’re looking at how we can grow efficiently and effectively into the South Island to service that market.”
Great time for it
Despite the downturn, rising fuel prices eating into shoppers’ leftover discretionary income and a stretched-thin retail market, Retail NZ chief executive Carolyn Young said now was actually a great time for retailers to be expanding across - or into - New Zealand.
A down economy brought greater negotiating power and more choice, she said, presenting new opportunities for savvy operators, and those who were willing to take risks.
“In theory, you should be able to navigate a good lease term with a landlord, and the Government is meant to be making it easier to get things through the Resource Management Act, so we’d like to think councils will encourage businesses to be coming into the country for us to get better outcomes.
She said that entering the market during a downturn would allow the business to grow at a manageable pace, putting it in a strong position to expand once the economy recovered.
“For retailers there's always things people can buy. It's around how you position yourself in the market to ensure that you're relatable and relevant to the audience.
She said the Winning Group had likely been planning its New Zealand move for some time, and that another player exiting the market was advantageous because it created more opportunity to gain market share.
Young said Adairs’ imminent departureshowed that it didn't matter the size of the business, the retail market was tough for all businesses to navigate right now.
“Most businesses have used virtually all of their cash reserves,” she said.
Spending data from the Worldline payments network shows the Iran war and recent weather dampened consumer appetites in March. Retail spending values rose 0.5% to $3.96b, with the lift driven by higher prices rather than increased transaction volumes.
Spending growth had been up 2.9% in the first weekend of March, around the initial attacks on Iran. By the end of the month spending was barely above levels seen a year ago.
Young said she was concerned the retail sector was going backwards as consumers remained cautious and pressures on retailers continued to mount.
She said that while there had been signs of recovery in January and February, the Middle East crisis had changed the outlook, and MBIE was now expecting a quarter of decline before any rebound — meaning it could take several quarters to work through before conditions improved.
“Reserves are low and cash flow is tight. We know the IRD is still tough on late payments or no payments, and businesses have closed as a result, so I'd say we're a bit worse off than we were last year, because we've only had a couple of good months between May 2025 and today.”