Myer boss Olivia Wirth reports strong sales as she reveals Solomon Lew’s return date to the board

Myer boss Olivia Wirth will wait and see how the rest of the Christmas trading period pans out, but says it’s been “so far, so good” after the department store chain recorded its best-ever Black Friday sales period.

Ms Wirth told the company’s annual general meeting on Thursday that group sales were up 3 per cent to $1.52 billion in the first 19 weeks of the new financial year.

At the same time, she revealed billionaire retailer Solomon Lew would join the Myer board in April, marking his return after a 23-year absence. Mr Lew is Myer’s biggest shareholder with a 26.8 per cent stake.

In a trading update at the meeting, Ms Wirth said sales in Myer retail, the department stores division, grew 3.4 per cent, with double-digit growth in homewares, womenswear and concessions. Sales at Just Jeans, Portmans, Dotti, Jay Jays and Jacqui E, collectively known as Apparel Brands, grew 1.3 per cent.

“We’ve had a very encouraging start to (the 2026 financial year),” Mr Wirth said.

“Pleasingly, we also had a strong lead up to Black Friday for Myer Retail, achieving our biggest Black Friday sales performance on record.”

With Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock this week putting the nation on notice about interest rate hikes, Ms Wirth told The Nightly she was always conscious about the impact of macroeconomic factors on consumer spending and sentiment.

“We’re still in the middle of the Christmas trade period, so we’ll see how the rest transpires but so far, so good,” she said.

“We will trade whatever environment we’re in and make sure that the Myer Group is well-positioned regardless of changes externally.”

Ms Wirth said Myer had invited Mr Lew to join the board given he was its biggest shareholder. She said she looked forward to him making a positive contribution to the group.

Mr Lew has been a long-time agitator on Myer’s register and in the past has called for a clear-out of the board to improve dwindling sales.

As a teenager, he supplied dresses to the Myer Emporium, which in the 1980s merged with GJ Coles & Coy to become Coles Myer.

By 1991, Mr Lew had claimed the seat as Coles Myer chair but was removed in 2002. He began voicing his concerns with Myer’s management in 2017, openly criticising then-chair John King.

It was revealed in Myer’s full-year results in September that its marriage to Mr Lew’s Apparel Brands weighed heavily on the group’s profit.

Myer reported a net loss of $211.2m after booking a one-off impairment of $213.3 million linked to the Apparel Brands purchase.

But Ms Wirth again backed the deal on Thursday, saying the formation of the expanded Myer Group, which came after the acquisition, was “absolutely the right decision for the business in creating significant shareholder value into the future”.

“You have a business which has five key brands and we know from talking to our customers the role that they play in the consumers’ live,” she said.

“We believe there’s opportunity for us in the future to modernise those brands and to make them more relevant for the customer of the future.”

Myer shares closed 9.8 per cent higher at 45¢ but are down 63 per cent for the year.