the entertainment retail company . for other uses see sanity . sanity entertainment type unlisted private company industry retail founded 1980 company origins 1992 sanity brand founder brett blundy headquarters 36 48 ashford avenue milperra sydney new south wales australia key people ray itaoui owner garry mortlock ceo 1 products cds dvds blu rays & merchandise . 1 revenue a 185 278 000 as of 2012 1 number of employees 1 753 as of 2012 1 slogan great service great value website sanity.com.au sanity is an australian chain of music and entertainment stores and is the country s second largest retailer of recorded audio and video discs . it is privately owned by ray itaoui and as of march 2015 sanity comprises 155 outlets in every state and territory . the brand specialises in the sale of cds dvds blu rays and related merchandise and accessories sold from its network of stores and website . the sanity brand was owned and conceived by brazin limited from 1992 before being folded into bb retail capital in 2006 then became a company in its own right after it was divested to itaoui in 2009 . contents 1 brazin and sanity history 1.1 1980s 1.2 1990s 1.3 2000s 1.4 2010s 2 recent developments 3 ultimate and sain 4 references 5 external links brazin and sanity history edit 1980s edit in 1980 20 year old brett blundy and a business partner he met from school bought two rundown record stores called disco duck . they immediately closed one combined the stock into the pakenham store situated in a small shopping arcade and reopened as jetts selling vinyls 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 . 2 3 4 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 . 3 4 5 1990s edit this logo was used by brazin limited from their inception in 1986 to their end in 2006 . 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 3 4 5 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 he while running his five store company in the late 1980s 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 . 3 4 6 7 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 asx in december of that year with an ipo at 1.50 a share . blundy retained a 62 % stake in the company . 4 5 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 . 5 8 9 10 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 . 5 11 in may 1999 the company created viva lingerie targeting a different demographic to bras n things the former focused on young price conscience women . 12 13 also in that year brazin acquired another 9 lingerie retail stores from triumph international pty ltd. 5 2000s edit dance arena concept stores operated within a select group of large footprint sanity outlets from 2000 until 2003 . dance arenas offered an expanded range of commercial dance house trance drum n bass hardcore dubstep r & b hip hop and others on cd and vinyl . they also sold dj equipment headphones t shirts hats and event tickets . dance arenas were generally closed off from their host sanity stores in order to play their own music operated their own pos systems and were staffed by people who had experience in the dance music industry . in march 2000 sanity s first foray into a digital music download service caused consternation within the industry when they signed a five year deal with festival mushroom records for a three year online exclusivity window on all tracks downloaded from the label at sanity s website . rival retailers or other online services were meant to be blocked from festival mushroom s catalogue for that period unless sanity chose to strike separate deals with their rivals to let them in . chaos.com and leading edge music both made public threats to boycott festival mushroom s content but hmv australia whose website did not offer downloading followed through removing all their cds from their domestic stores adding they were would do the same overseas . but the next week festival mushroom backed down stating sanity would simply be the wholesaler of their digital downloads for the next three years requiring them to make all products available to other retailers at the time of release . 14 15 16 in june of this year brazin opened the gosh coffee chain with an aim of 50 outlets within the year and ultimately reaching 200 to 300 nationwide . 17 the store count at the end of june 2000 saw sanity contain 233 outlets and bras n things with 120 . 18 in january 2001 ian duffell was appointed ceo with brett blundy moving down to run brazin s strategic development however eight months later he relinquished the position swapping roles with blundy again . duffell remained a director until april 2003 . 19 20 21 in october 2001 sanity expanded into the united kingdom via two related transactions with richard branson s virgin group acquiring 77 troubled our price music stores for a symbolic 2 and in turn gaining exclusive license rights in australia for virgin entertainment which last traded in australia nine years before under the co ownership of the virgin group and blockbuster inc. . brazin paid 7.7 million a 21.8 million to the virgin group while getting that exact amount back from virgin for tax reasons . brazin s managing director ian duffel said that the uk music market was one of the strongest in the world that year and he expected a 50 per cent increase in music revenues from day one . further to the deal virgin would get 1 per cent of all turnover in the stores in conjunction to offering brazin a 2 million loan facility . brazin also made a commitment to restrict the size and proximity of its sanity uk stores in order to ensure they do not pose a large competitive threat to virgin s other music shops . 22 23 in australia brazin re established the first virgin megastore on chapel street s the jam factory in april 2002 . brazin also intended to use the virgin brand to open 45 new stores in addition to converting 55 of its existing in2 music stores that had not already been rebranded as sanity . however the program stalled as brazin battled internal disruptions and struggled to separate the target markets for virgin and its chain of more than 200 sanity stores at the time . as a result the company s entertainment division posted a 27 million loss in financial year 2002 03 and by mid 2004 brazin had only managed to open 12 virgin megastores . 24 25 26 by the end of this year brazin sold out of its loss making gosh coffee 16 store chain of which six were sold to freshfood hospitality pty ltd with three still in operation today and city live nightclub at fox studios in sydney . 27 28 29 30 in november 2002 an additional 41 british vshop music and mobile phone stores were acquired from the virgin group for 2 million . earlier this year brazin experienced many delays in rebranding the our price stores due to landlords heritage listings and negotiations with railtrack . the company also shifted sanity uk s headquarters from our price s central london offices to alperton . the new british outlets were already starting to return on investments and overall company operating profit rose to 32 per cent in the year to 30 june 2002 to 22.1 million with sanity branded outlets then numbering 291 in australia . 31 32 a sanity outlet within westfield fountain gate narre warren a south eastern suburb of melbourne . in june 2003 with brazin s shareprice languishing at 0.55 some business analysts criticised the company s strategy of aggressive expansion in the sanity brand which they said may be cannibalising sales from sister stores instead of concentrating on lifting the performance of existing outlets . under this cloud blundy s retail investment company yoda holdings made a