Nigel Austin
Melbourne, Australia
Australia
retail, Self Made
$1,400,000,000
1605
#1605 Billionaires 2019
#27 Australia's 50 Richest 2019
Nigel Austin is the founder and majority owner of the Cotton On clothing and stationery group. Its brands include Cotton On, Supre, Factorie and Typo.His company has grown rapidly in the past few years, expanding to 1,450 stores in 18 countries and estimated sales of $1.5 billion in 2017. About half of these stores are in Australia, while the other half are spread across countries including Singapore, South Africa and the U.S.Founded in 1991, Austin started selling acid-washed denim jackets from the trunk of his car in his hometown southwest of Melbourne.Now it sells inexpensive fashion basics, including T-shirts, leggings, sweatpants, shoes and underwear, as well as quirky stationery.
Austin's late father, Grant Austin, ran a publicly traded clothing wholesale and import business called the Austin Group, where Austin would spend school holidays working.In 1991 Austin set up his first store in a small space behind a butcher shop run by his grandfather and sourced merchandise from his father.
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