Frankii’s first store opened in Cockburn Gateways in 2006 when I was about 25 years of age.  

There was no social media back then, so we relied purely on word of mouth and walk by traffic. Frankii quickly grew its name around Perth as we were one of the first independent boutiques to go into a Shopping Centre. For my past 10 years I had worked in various boutiques around Australia but spent most of my working years at another local boutique called Live Clothing. From years of experience, I gained enough knowledge and courage to open my own boutique in which I named Frankii. My husband had been a school teacher for ten years but after the birth of our second daughter, quit his job to help with both children and run the logistics for the business.

 

 

Before opening, I worked at a 24 hour travel consultancy called Best Flights where I started to plan and research my grand business plans of opening a Fashion Boutique. It was here I met a colleague called Frankie, a guy, in which I thought would be a perfect name for a unisex Clothing Store. Frankii started as men's and women's but after 6 years we shut the men's section and focussed on womenswear and homewares. 

 

 

After our first year at Frankii we started to realise quickly our customers were travelling from afar to come visit us. They were begging for a North of the River store and we knew it was vital to expand. The business took off in the first year so the thought of growth was always on my mind. We were offered a lease in the CBD and ventured into the footwear business opening a Frankii Clothing and Footwear store. We imported shoes from Malaysia and I was traveling 8 times a year picking ranges and bringing samples home. Unfortunately, the area we took a space in didn’t work and the centre ended up closing within 2 years, forcing us to shut doors. Suffering a fair amount of loss from closing the city we didn’t give up hope and opened our third store at Hillary's Boat Harbour which has now been operating for 6 years. This store was the best decision we have ever made, gaining many loyal customers since day one of opening. In 2017, global E commerce was rising at top speed, Instagram launched E shopping and I knew we had to jump on it quickly or risked the loss of sales. We opened our online store in early 2018 and since then have seen over 100% growth year on. Our main focus now is growing our online store but also nurturing our shop front stores and walk in customers which have been the forefront of the business since opening. 

Ezra Blu has been my baby since 2013! After a few years in, I started to find buying difficult and couldn’t purchase enough decent product to fill the store, nor anything unique at a lower price point. My customers were always driven by price, so it was never an option buying in with higher price point designers. My husband and I took off to Guangzhou when I was pregnant with my first daughter and tried to contact and visit as many local factories as possible. Our main issue was the language barrier as no one spoke English and then finding a factory who would produce less then 50 units at a time. We nearly gave up hope but on the last day got an email back from one company who were happy to work with us. We went to visit them and they were a lovely family with two young children who took us on. We have now worked with this family for 10 years and built a wonderful relationship. They have a small factory and all our Ezra Blu is sewn by a team of about 10 local workers. Before covid I would visit them 4 times a year to purchase fabrics and create designs with Mrs Yong, my pattern maker. The quality has always been exceptional and it's our number one selling label. We now produce over 120 units in each item and our factory works full time for us on production.

At this stage, we will continue to grow our online business and keep our two bricks and mortar stores. We have no plans to expand any more retail shops but have lots of plans for our online store including a new warehouse and some very exciting product launches! Frankii employs over 25 staff and as the owner, very proud to have built a solid Frankii Team! The girls are like family to my husband and I; we love that we have created a fun inspiring work place and built many friendships along the way.