BBRC is a private investment company founded by Australian businessman Brett Blundy.
History
1980s
In 1980, 20-year-old Brett Blundy and a business partner he met from school bought two rundown record stores called Disco Stick. They immediately closed one, combined the stock into the Pakenham store (situated in a small shopping arcade) and reopened as Jetts, selling vinyl records and cassettes. The lease for this store was for a three-year period, but it was losing money from day one. Blundy and his partner found another unloved record store a year later, this time within a bigger shopping district at Parkmore Shopping Centre, Keysborough, supported by a larger surrounding population. Before they purchased it, the Parkmore store was turning over $2,000 a week, but six months later as a Jetts outlet, it had increased to $15,000, and was subsidising the failing Pakenham store which was closed once the lease had expired. The Parkmore outlet lasted until 2010 under the Jetts, Delta, and Sanity branding.
In 1986, Blundy and his business partner went their separate ways with Blundy selling his 60% stake in the eight-store Jetts chain to his former partner for $600,000. This left Blundy to pursue an idea he had three months before the Jetts sell-off, after he noticed one of his "fashionable" female store managers kept wearing a broken bra, held together with a safety pin. Knowing that most lingerie at that time were beige in colour with unflattering cuts, he wanted to sell underwear in various cuts and colours, alongside G-strings that were unheard of for casual wear. Three months later, he took out his first franchise in The Bra Shop chain at Chirnside Park Shopping Centre, mainly selling brand name product, but gradually sourcing different lines independently of the franchise (his first run of 15 G-strings sold out in one day). Bryan Luca, the franchisor of The Bra Shop, entered into an agreement with Blundy to buy his three Victorian stores in exchange for Luca's four underperforming Bras N Things outlets in New South Wales and a guarantee to not trade in Victoria. Brazin Limited officially commenced operation after Blundy expanded Bras 'N' Things into South Australia and then Queensland.
1990s
In 1990, Brazin Limited bought back the failed Jetts chain from the liquidators at a discount and began to progressively rebrand them as Delta music stores. Also in that year, with Bras 'N' Things expanded to 60 stores around the country, Bryan Luca started to progressively sell his remaining Victorian Bra Shop outlets to Blundy in groups of six at a time with all eventually being sold and renamed to Bras 'N' Things
The Sanity concept and brand was established and introduced by Brazin in 1992 with its first store at Doncaster Shoppingtown. This occurred by chance thanks to Blundy's working knowledge of Doncaster Shoppingtown, as – while running his five-store company in the late 1980s – he worked as a casual shop assistant in its Just Jeans store to learn more about its culture and internal processes. When he found out the centre's only record shop closed without notice he brazenly talked his way into that lease with the centre manager, even though it was earmarked for another music retailer (that store ceased trading in 2010). Also in that year, Blundy's company started the designer, marketer and distributor (no shopfronts) of women's surfwear brand, Aztec Rose.
In 1997, the company acquired 14 CC Records outlets in Victoria, folding them into the Sanity/Delta network. Brazin Limited also listed publicly with the Australian Securities Exchange in December of that year with an initial public offering at $1.50 a share. Blundy retained a 62% stake in the company.
In June 1998, it acquired 27 outlets from the Brashs music chain on its demise via its administrators, KPMG, and the two remaining stores from Blockbuster Music in Pitt Street, Sydney, and Chapel Street, Melbourne – relaunching all of them as Sanity music stores on an ongoing basis (with staff, leases, etc. continuing at each store). After these acquisitions, Sanity and Delta had 148 outlets combined with Brazin publicly stating their aim was for 250 nationwide. The share price was now up to $2.29.
In September 1998, Brazin introduced IN2 Music stores by converting three Delta outlets in North Queensland and outer Melbourne. Like Delta, IN2 Music targeted a wider demographic than Sanity's focus on the youth 16-26 age group, giving Brazin more scope after the collapse of adult-orientated chain, Brashs. IN2 Music expanded the next year after the company purchased a further 23 CC Records stores in South Australia and Queensland, and re-branded more Delta outlets.