Formal Menswear Retailing in Australia - Market Size, Industry Analysis, Trends and Forecasts (2024-2029)

Wear and tear: COVID-19-related lockdown restrictions have lowered demand for industry products

Operators in the Formal Menswear Retailing industry have posted mixed results over the past five years. Office-based work's rising prominence fuelled demand for industry products over the early part of the period. A range of factors supported demand during this period, including Australian consumers' increasing wealth, the declining cost of formal menswear, and consumers' increased access to information and options regarding men's fashion online. Despite earlier gains, industry revenue declined following the COVID-19 outbreak in March 2020. Lockdown periods, trading restrictions, work-from-home directives and restrictions on group gatherings effectively led to a drop in demand for formal menswear, which affected industry revenue. As a result, industry revenue is expected to decline at an annualised 1.4% over the five years through 2021-22, to $1.1 billion. This trend includes a weak rise of 0.6% in the current year, due to a rise in the number of non-manual employees in the workforce, disposable income growth and an expected return to COVID-19 normal trading conditions.

Industry operators primarily retail formal menswear such as suits, shirts, ties and jackets. The industry excludes sales of formal menswear from department stores and online-only retailers, but includes the online operations of bricks-and-mortar stores.

This report covers the scope, size, disposition and growth of the industry including the key sensitivities and success factors. Also included are five year industry forecasts, growth rates and an analysis of the industry key players and their market shares.