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Briggins: the suit business that comes to you [part one]

Sarah Stowe

Daniel Breese and Matthew Higgins are transforming the way men shop for and purchase suits. 

The friends and business partners established mobile suit supply and tailoring business Briggins in 2006 after they experienced the perils associated with finding the right suit firsthand, and found they weren’t the only ones. 

Just as Breese and Higgins struggled to find the time to update their suits, a necessity when one is worn on a daily basis, so too did their fellow white collar workers.

“I was working as a bank manager at ANZ at the time and had this quirky idea one day when I needed a new suit yet didn’t have the time to shop for one. I used my contacts to organise a suit party at the branch after hours, got all the guys together and we sold our first suits back in 2006,” says Higgins.

They quickly realised they’d captured a niche in the market, and identified that there were two particular types of people the business catered to.

“Daniel and I saw the need for a mobile menswear business because we were in the corporate world at the time and a) didn’t like shopping and/or b) didn’t have time to go shopping, so we came up with the idea of taking the clothes to the guys and saving them time and money,” explains Higgins.

“We were both working in professional industries, were both very time poor and at the time we felt there was a need for a business like Briggins – we knew we had to look good yet didn’t have the time do it,” Breese adds.  

The pair initially kept their full time jobs, operating the business in their spare time, however quite early on they left the corporate world to focus solely on growing the Briggins brand.

“After a very short period of time we realised there was definitely a demand in the market for Briggins’ services and within a few short weeks and months we quit our regular day jobs and pushed the business full time, and it’s gone from strength to strength ever since,” says Breese.

While initially Briggins’ key market was professional working males, the wedding market is also proving particularly lucrative.

“During the week our main customers are typically business guys – such as accountants, lawyers and real estate agents, and we’ve tapped into the wedding market, which has been very successful for us too because it can be quite a pain to get all the groomsmen together to go shopping.

“We make it easy – the client can simply book a time for us to come to their house, get their mates over and we’ll bring everything to them,” Higgins explains. 

AN AFFORDABLE MOBILE BUSINESS

The pair says Briggins franchisees can expect low overheads, flexible working hours and the freedom to work from home, and there’s a good chance they’ll earn a significant amount of money in the process.

“The beauty of the business is the low overheads – it will cost franchisees about $500 per week to run and there’s no huge investment of a shop front,” says Higgins.

Instead of waiting for customers to walk in off the street, franchisees are able to drive to their clients’ home or office irrespective of their territory. 

“Franchisees store all of their stock including suits, shirts, ties, shoes and cufflinks in a black Volkswagen Caddy so they basically just run the business from their car and home,” says Higgins.

“They get a territory which is non-exclusive so if they’re referred elsewhere they can go and see those clients,” adds Breese.

Higgins is confident franchisees will reap financial rewards all the while enjoying a healthy work/life balance.

“I think bang for buck and time wise, if you follow our system a) you’ll earn a lot of money and b) you’ll have flexible working hours as well,” he says.

Breese says the initial cost of a Briggins franchise is also rather appealing. “It’s a very attractive start-up business, particularly as the days of bricks-and-mortar retail are changing with the advent of online shopping. The initial cost is around the $60,000 mark plus additional fees such as legals.” 

Stay tuned for part two of the story, where we’ll look at the franchise offer – including a franchisee’s typical day and the training and support on offer at Briggins.