As of October 29, 2026, Haigh's Chocolates has confirmed two new stores in Brisbane, at Westfield Chermside and Westfield Carindale, roughly two months after its first Queensland store opened at Westfield Mt Gravatt in August. The South Australian chocolatier is timing both openings ahead of the Christmas trading period, and chief executive Peter Millard said the group expects both centres to be warmly received. For teams planning store networks, the interesting part is not the count but the sequence.
Two openings, one city, eight weeks apart
The three sites sit inside one metropolitan market, which changes how each should be judged. A first store in a new city usually carries a discovery role, testing whether the brand travels beyond its home state. Once that question is answered, additional stores take on a coverage role, filling gaps in the trade area and reducing the distance customers travel to reach the range.
Haigh's has been building the supply side to match. The company opened a $120 million production and logistics facility in South Australia last year to expand operations and strengthen its national distribution network, and it has described the Queensland push as an extension of that reach. Capacity of this kind is what makes a three-store city viable, because stock can be pooled rather than duplicated at each site.
Why the third store is the real test
The first store answers whether the brand works in a new market. The third store answers whether the network works. With three sites in one city, the retailer has to decide which store carries the full range, which carries the gifting assortment, and which serves as the pickup point for online orders. That allocation decision is where most multi-store plans succeed or fail.
| Store | Role in the network | Main risk | Metric to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mt Gravatt | Discovery and brand trial | Novelty fades after opening | Repeat visit rate |
| Chermside | Volume and gifting | Crowding at peak season | Sales per square metre |
| Carindale | Coverage for southern trade area | Overlap with existing sites | Share of new customers |
| Online orders | Fulfilment from nearest store | Stock accuracy across sites | Order fill rate |
The trade area overlap question
Westfield Chermside and Westfield Carindale sit on different sides of the Brisbane metropolitan area, which is the argument for both. The risk is not that they compete with each other but that each pulls some demand away from the Mt Gravatt site. Store selection models usually assume new sites add incremental sales, and the only way to test that assumption is to track where customers live rather than how much they spend.
What the August debut proved
The Mt Gravatt opening drew hundreds of customers on its first day, according to the company, which tells us the brand travels but not whether the market is deep enough for three sites. Opening day traffic is a poor guide to steady state. The more useful signal arrives in weeks six to twelve, when novelty has faded and the store has to earn repeat visits on range and service.
Christmas sets the deadline for store selection
Confectionery retail is unusually seasonal, and the Christmas window can account for a large share of annual sales. That makes the timing of these two openings a deliberate bet: get the stores trading before the peak, absorb the learning in the busiest weeks, and enter the new year with a settled operating model. Opening after Christmas would have pushed that learning into a much slower trading period.
Seasonal openings also stress the parts of a store that are easiest to under-design. Queues, gift packing, tasting stations and stock replenishment all get tested at once, and failures are visible to the customers who matter most. For a chocolatier whose proposition includes complimentary tastings and in-store service, the peak season is both the best showcase and the harshest audit.
A checklist for the next store
This checklist is deliberately short because store decisions fail for simple reasons: the range does not match the role, the trade area overlaps more than expected, or nobody measured whether the new site brought new customers. Filling these fields forces those questions to be answered with numbers instead of impressions, and it gives a network team a shared language when the next lease comes up.
FAQ
Why open three stores in one city within a few months?
Because distribution economics change once a city has a base. A single store carries the full cost of stock, staff and delivery on its own, while three stores share a regional inventory pool and can serve a wider trade area without adding a second warehouse.
What is the biggest risk in clustering stores?
Cannibalisation. If two sites draw from the same trade area, total sales may barely move while rent, wages and stock all rise. The test is whether the second store adds new customers or simply splits the first store's traffic.
How should a seasonal opening be timed?
Work backwards from the peak trading weeks. Fit-out, staffing and stock all need to be ready before the season starts, and the first four weeks of trading should be treated as a live test of layout and range rather than a final verdict.
Which metrics prove a new store is working?
Three: sales per square metre against the existing site, the share of customers who are new to the brand, and basket size relative to the city average. If sales rise but new-customer share stays flat, the store is mostly moving demand around.
