The clothing design process is done entirely from their headquarters in East Tamaki with the clothing manufactured at their factory just down the road. This has given the company an edge over other stores manufacturing overseas, as clothes could be produced in a week, giving the company added flexibility and agility in the market.
"We don't mass produce anything so it means we can do smaller runs of something and then see how it goes," Keri said.
"If it sells well we can bring out the same style but maybe in a different pattern. It also helps because a lot of our competitors have ordered their stock in months before, so if it's summer but still cool, we can sell warmer clothes, when everyone else is selling summer clothes. We can be very agile in the market," he said.
According to Keri, this also enabled the company to be competitive with pricing as there was no middle man.
Gina had been working with Jean Jones for 20 years in various roles when the company went into receivership after its previous owners were investigated by the serious fraud office, and who have since been found guilty of fraud and jailed. The couple admitted it might have been easier to start their own company instead of buying the struggling Jean Jones but Keri said it was the strength of the brand that convinced them to take it on, as well as Gina's history with the company.
"The brand's always been very strong, I mean a 40-year brand doesn't just disappear overnight," Keri said. "When the receivers took over and we more than doubled the turnover in one month, we realised that the brand was still strong it just needed a bit of love. It was all there it just needed fixing."
Gina said her knowledge of the brand over the 20 years had given her a lot of insights into what the company had been doing right and what needed to change. She said a lot of this was simply around having the right products and quality materials.
"When the receivers took it over, stock levels were about 300 items per shop, the previous owners had really wound it down," Gina said "The old buyers tended to buy stock at the tail end, so the stuff no one else wanted which made them difficult to sell," she said. "Fabrics are so important, it doesn't matter how good your style is, it has to look right. If the fabric and the style look good together, that's what sells."
Gina said they had worked hard with their stock to bring in new higher quality fabrics, selecting their fabrics and styles at the beginning of the season.
The Condons took over the company on June 1, 2011, and began the process of rebuilding the brand. Keri said they had since spent a lot of time and money on revamping the stores, the product and the brand as a whole, putting in a lot of the hard work - including painting, lighting and carpeting in the stores - themselves.
Gina said the initial success of the takeover and store revamp had given them the confidence to keep evolving and growing the brand.
The Jean Jones story
1969 - Jean Jones is founded
1979 - The company becomes franchised
October 2010 - Deloitte is appointed as receivers for the company after it is affected by the failure of Rockforte finance company
June 2011 - Gina and Keri Condon take over the company with 13 stores remaining
July 2011 - Company turnover doubles
October 2014 - The company has 22 stores and is looking at potential further expansion.
