By Patrick Avenell

SYDNEY, NSW: One week after announcing that it will abandon its lease it Kath & Kim’s hometown, Fountain Gate, David Jones has today said it will be expanding its store presence in the more affluent suburbs of northern Perth.

In a release to the ASX this morning, new CEO Paul Zahra identified this region as being a high growth, high income area, which is what his predecessor, Mark McInnes identified as the core David Jones locale.

According to the release, David Jones has entered into a 20-year lease with AMP Capital for store at Karrinyup Shopping Centre. This store will service a catchment area of 195,000 people with an average household annual income of almost $84,000, according to David Jones’ research.

Myer already has a store in this shopping complex, so this store expansion – which is quotes as being around 4,500 square metres, in addition to the existing 9,500 square metre store – will enable David Jones to compete more aggressively with its traditional rival.

Zahra said this move has enabled David Jones to “lock in a dominant position in the high value, high growth northern Perth region”.