Dri-Glo: Lessons from the brand that's survived nine decades

In 1930, homewares brand Dri-Glo was founded in Yarraville, Victoria when its first towel rolled off the loom. Back then, it was primarily a towels brand that graced the bathrooms of households all over Australia.

Needless to say, a lot changes over the span of 90 years. Dri-Glo is no longer only found in bathrooms, with linen, bedding and living products joining the brand’s product offerings, turning it into an iconic brand for the modern Australian.

Perhaps the biggest change for Dri-Glo came only four years ago, when then-owner Australian Weaving Mills (AWM) collapsed into administration, and sold the brand to Caprice Australia (which has its own range of home-based products, and also owns swimwear brand Mambo).

As Paul Cannon, chief executive of Caprice Australia tells SmartCompany Plus, the company believed its expertise could reinvigorate the Dri-Glo brand and make it even more relevant.

While Cannon doesn’t disclose any exact figures, he does say that Dri-Glo has doubled its revenue since the Caprice acquisition.

But growth isn’t measured solely in numbers. Cannon emphasises that Caprice has also grown Dri-Glo significantly “through distribution, expansion, and also its new online, direct-to-consumer strategy”.

The last 12 months have kept up this growth trend, with new categories being created under the Dri-Glo umbrella. Cannon says this increase in home categories — across the whole business — is thanks to the fact that people are either “spending all day in their pyjamas, all day in their bedroom, or doing as much exercise as they can”.

So did Dri-Glo get lucky? Did a new owner come onboard, ready to expand its brand offerings into more home categories just as a pandemic was about to hit; a time when consumers would be spending more hours than ever inside?

Unlikely.

To survive across 90 years, a brand needs a lot more than luck. It needs quality, strategy, and grit. And Dri-Glo has that in spades.

Key takeaways

Product is king: consumers will walk away from a product if it doesn’t deliver on its key attributes
Brand values don’t necessarily need to change if a new owner comes on board
Sustainability is becoming more popular, and businesses should expect more conscious consumers
Be willing to change alongside your consumer while keeping your brand values intact

A quality product

Cannon believes it is the businesses that actually have a sustainable business model that are the ones that manage to both survive and thrive.

“Those that haven’t been prepared, [and] haven’t had foresight to know that you had to evolve and change as the markets change, [or] those that weren’t willing to change or embrace what was happening are unfortunately no longer playing in the market. Which is sad,” Cannon ruminates.

But Caprice Australia isn’t one of those unfortunate businesses, and neither is Dri-Glo as a brand.

So why does Cannon believe the brand has outweighed the odds of longevity? Simple: the product.

As with any acquisition the company takes on, Caprice knew it was coming to work with a brand built on quality. Across Dri-Glo’s lifetime, there’s been a lot of work done around the quality of the product, its water absorbency, and the different types of fabrications, Cannon explains. And this thirst for quality hasn’t wavered under the new ownership, nor the new product categories.

“Product is king, and consumers will walk away from a product very quickly if it doesn’t deliver on its key attributes,” Cannon says.

“For us, we always start with the notion that ‘product is king’, and we won’t compromise on product. Then we build our architecture around the fact that the product is great.”

Sustainability strategy

For Caprice, the architecture surrounding any new Dri-Glo product is often centered around sustainability — a value that is critical across the whole business, Cannon explains.

“We believe we have a strong responsibility in terms of how we produce and manufacture products.”

Caprice’s sustainability manager Corinne Hollier tells SmartCompany Plus that the entire business works with like-minded manufacturing partners, and ensures all suppliers sign on to its ‘Ethical Sourcing Code’.

This code covers standards relating to human rights, labour standards, health and safety, environmental protection and business ethics. Each factory must pass an ethical sourcing audit against the requirements contained in the code and undertake ongoing training.

“They also must adhere to our chemicals policy which is designed to ensure the safety of the people making our products and the environments in which they operate, as well as our end-user consumers,” Hollier explains.

For Dri-Glo products in particular, this involves using the flax plant to produce the linen for its range (as it requires little to no fertilisers or pesticides, and helps protect against erosion), as well as cotton, as “supporting the largest family-run Australian cotton farming industry is also important to us as a heritage brand”.

Cannon shares an example of another Caprice brand, Mambo, where the entire Mambo swimwear range is made from 100% PET recycled bottles.

“So, you know, it’s part of what we do as a business. It’s a pillar this business is built on,” Cannon reiterates.

“And we don’t segregate Dri-Go from that.”

“As a country, we have developed a disposable society, and as a business, we want to reduce that.”

Despite this ‘disposable society’, Cannon says there has been a clear shift in values, and he believes “we’ll only have more conscious consumers as we move forward”.

Success roadmap

While remaining adamant that ‘product is king’, Cannon doesn’t shy away from the fact that customers are who it all comes down to.

“I think Dri-Glo, over the years, has stayed relevant by evolving to consumer demands,” Cannon says.

“When times are tough and when times are difficult and when there’s a lot of uncertainty in the world, people lean back into brands that resonate strongly with them; that make them feel comfortable.

“We know what’s resonating with consumers.”

So when asked what advice he would give to a brand wanting to reach old age like Dri-Glo has, Cannon says you need to “know your brand values”, but “most importantly, you need to understand your consumer”.

“I think if you can understand your customer, their requirements and the market changes, and you’re very clear on your brand architecture and your brand strategy, well, then you’re halfway to success.”