The TJX Cos. is expanding its off-price retail empire with the acquisition of Australian chain Trade Secret from Gazal Corp., for $58.54 million. Trade Secret operates 35 stores in Australia, selling off-price branded apparel for women, men and children, as well as footwear, accessories and home goods.Trade Secret opened its first store in 1992 and since then, has grown to AUD$164.5 million in revenue for its fiscal year ended June 2015.

“We are excited about expanding to another continent, which underscores the strength of our international growth opportunities,” said Carol Meyrowitz, TJX chairman and CEO, in a press release. “TJX is one of the few major U.S. retailers to have expanded successfully in international markets, including Canada and Europe, which gives us confidence in our potential growth in Australia. With consumer demographics similar to Canada, we see Trade Secret as a strong platform to grow in Australia similar to how we entered Canada with our acquisition of Winners in 1990 and grew that business into a leading Canadian retailer.”

The TJX empire is comprised of 3,441 stores in seven countries. These include 1,126 T.J. Maxx, 987 Marshalls, 498 HomeGoods and 6 Sierra Trading Post stores, as well astjmaxx.com and sierratradingpost.com in the U.S.; 239 Winners, 97 HomeSense, and 39 Marshalls stores in Canada; and 416 T.K. Maxx and 33 HomeSense stores, as well astkmaxx.com, in Europe.

http://www.icsc.org/press/tjx-adds-australian-to-off-price-empire