Nigel Austin

Net worth over time

Biography

• Nigel Austin is the founder and majority owner of the Cotton On clothing and stationery group. Its brands include Cotton On, Supre, Factorie and Typo.
• His company has close to 1,300 stores in 17 countries with 2025 revenue of around $1.5 billion.
• About half of these stores are in Australia, while the other half are spread across countries such as Singapore, South Africa and the U.S.
• Founded in 1991, Austin started selling acid-washed denim jackets from the trunk of his car in his hometown southwest of Melbourne.
• Now it sells inexpensive fashion basics, including T-shirts, leggings, sweatpants, shoes and underwear, as well as quirky stationery.
• Austin's late father, Grant Austin, ran a publicly traded clothing wholesale and import business called the Austin Group, where Austin would spend school holidays working.
• In 1991 Austin set up his first store in a small space behind a butcher shop run by his grandfather and sourced merchandise from his father.