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Triumph International is a global lingerie brand established in 1886 and known for making fashionable, quality bras with an outstanding fit. Triumph’s incredible story has seen them grow from a company based in Germany to a company operating in more than 120 countries.

MGI has worked with Triumph International (Australia) Pty Ltd for more than a decade supporting the Australian team with a deep knowledge of the company’s history and expert advice and context for decision making.

When Financial Director Ben Elder joined Triumph International (Australia) MGI had already been on the scene for some time.

For Ben this offered an amazing opportunity to be part of an organisation that took pride in having innovation in its DNA.

“Triumph is committed to continuously improving our products and services to better serve our customers and this is what makes working in the company exciting.”

 

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Quick to establish rapport

“As a new Financial Director, MGI did an amazing job in immediately establishing a rapport and building on the existing platform for continuous improvement,” Ben said.

“Right from the get go MGI helped us to fine-tune and improve our audit activities, strengthen our corporate governance compliance and straighten out some internal deficiencies.

“As a true business partner, today we continue to rely on MGI’s expertise and advice to support us in challenges and to improve our business,” he said.

Two projects that have stood out over time

Help understanding the impacts of a large offshoring initiative

Triumph International’s overseas head office were instigating a major reorganisation of local country finance functions that involved outsourcing certain finance functions to a third party facility operated in India. Each country subject to this had to consider the local impacts and any specific issues or requirements to enable it.

Being a complex, unique and new situation Triumph International (Australia) consulted MGI to assist in understanding specific issues in Australian taxation laws that would require specific attention.

Given the uniqueness of this request there was no precedent to refer to. The MGI team had to consider any unintentional consequences and strategies to circumvent these.

At the end of the day the aim was to ensure that the Australian entity was not disadvantaged in any way through the loss of involvement and control.

Special attention and subsequent record keeping was established to address capital gains tax record keeping, GST and FBT.

Identifying the optimal structure for Triumph’s New Zealand Based Entity

Over time the role of the New Zealand company had changed with many of its management, distribution and enabling functions centralised to Australia. Triumph found that their New Zealand office was functioning as a sales office only.

MGI was engaged to advise on the optimal structure to reduce the complexity and cost of servicing the New Zealand market.

Through the Auckland office MGI advised on New Zealand tax issues specifically relating to being a foreign owner, New Zealand company laws, commercial issues and any practical issues that could arise.

MGI Audit were also able to advise Ben and his team on the audit/financial report presentation issues in relation to the New Zealand entity.

“Having this information ensured that we went in with our eyes open to consider whether this was a worthwhile project for us,” Ben said.

“The advice provided was concise and practical to follow to ensure efficient implementation,” he said.

Other help

Over the years MGI has been engaged to help streamline the Triumph International (Australia) structure. These reviews have resulted in liquidation of three companies in the group simplifying their structure and achieving significant cost savings.

 

MGI has also assisted with two major ATO audits focused on transfer pricing. These had the potential to cause Triumph major headaches however with MGI’s significant involvement in managing the audits Triumph has been able to maintain zero tax adjustments.

Would you recommend MGI?

“Without hesitation. The whole team is very commercially aware and understands the realities and pressures of operating a business in a competitive marketplace,” Ben says.

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