After 16 years building its accessories business through wholesale partners and online sales, Australian brand Bellroy is opening its first standalone retail stores, with plans to expand across three continents.
The Melbourne-based company is opening its first store on Little Collins Street in the CBD, with further locations planned for New York and Kuala Lumpur over the next six months.
But CEO Lina Calabria told SmartCompany the three stores are just the beginning, with plans to expand further in Australia and the US before moving into Asia and Europe.
“In a spreadsheet it is a number of around 20 stores in the next five years,” Calabria told SmartCompany.
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“We’re a very global brand and we sell in many of the real commuter cities around the world, and so we kind of see that those commuter cities are places where we have customers who like what we’re doing and we could imagine a store in that space.”
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Founded in 2010, Bellroy sells wallets, bags, luggage and tech accessories in more than 150 countries. The business recorded $146 million in revenue last financial year and is targeting growth of 10% to 20% over the coming year.
Calabria said the company had spent years considering whether to open its own stores, but previously lacked the product range to justify the investment.
“We feel like people really do want to be out in the world. We feel like that’s where our customers want to be, and we feel like our product range is now at a point where it would be worth us saying to our customers, ‘Hey, come and visit this location.’”
Bellroy bets on bricks-and-mortar paying off
Calabria said Bellroy expects its stores to make money, rather than simply serve as showrooms for the brand.
“Our goal is that really within three years, the stores should have paid back the investment into the fit-out and setting themselves up and be running profitable from there,” she said.
“We don’t have a plan for any of our stores to be running not profitably from a trading perspective. None of them are marketing flagships. They’re all proper retail locations that we expect to be profitable.”
Calabria said third-party retailers account for roughly 30% to 40% of Bellroy’s sales, depending on the time of year, with the remainder coming through its website and digital marketplaces.
She said Bellroy had spoken to retail partners near its planned stores, with most welcoming the move and believing it could help raise awareness of the brand.
Bellroy’s stores will stock a wider range of products, while existing stockists will continue choosing products suited to their own customers.
Physical retail enters its disruption era
Bellroy’s move into physical retail comes as online sales growth slows in established markets, following a decade of rapid expansion.
“That era has kind of ended and that’s a very stable sales channel now, while I think that it’s now time for physical retail to go through its disruption era,” she said.
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Retailers are increasingly being forced to rethink how physical and digital shopping experiences work together.
“Some retailers are just nailing it and doing a fantastic job of understanding how do they merge the online experience with the physical experience, and there’s certainly been a lot of headlines about retailers who are not nailing it and struggling.”
Bellroy is betting customers will want to try its bags before buying them.
Stores will employ specialist staff known as ‘carry guides’, who will help customers select products based on their needs, body shape and how they intend to use them.
Packing stations will also allow shoppers to fill bags with items such as laptops, phones and accessories before trying them on.
While Melbourne, New York and Kuala Lumpur are the first three announced locations, Sydney is also on Bellroy’s expansion list, Calabria revealed.
Melbourne, Sydney and New York are Bellroy’s three largest markets, although Calabria said finding suitable retail premises remains an important factor in determining where stores will open.
The business has been scouting locations in several other cities, with Australia and the US the immediate priorities.
The expansion comes as Calabria has been named a finalist in EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year program for 2026.
Calabria said the recognition is an opportunity to celebrate the company’s achievements and the people behind its success.
“I sort of see it as me representing Bellroy rather than me representing me in the process,” she said.
“It means a lot for me to kind of let the Bellroy team see that actually the world is taking notice to what we’re doing.”