How Baby Bunting became a case study in brave retail leadership
At the final LFRA Forum for 2025, members gained a rare and candid look at what it truly takes to lead a 45-year-old retail brand into its next generation.
Baby Bunting, now delivering some of its strongest results in years, provided a powerful backdrop for CEO & Managing Director Mark Teperson’s keynote.
Reflecting on the past two years since joining the business, Mr Teperson had a clear mandate to improve performance. His approach combined strategic discipline with an understanding that meaningful transformation is fundamentally emotional. He set out to steer an established 45-year-old brand into its next generation, evolving Baby Bunting into a business that truly reflects and anticipates the customer’s experience, while ensuring investors and the broader market had confidence in the journey.
He outlined how its turnaround has been built on disciplined strategic growth, elevating the customer experience, recommitting to retail fundamentals, and communicating a simple, actionable roadmap. His message was clear: success in retail belongs to those who innovate, are unafraid to listen to the good, the bad and the ugly to stay relevant, and who execute with precision.
This year’s opening of Baby Bunting’s first refurbished flagship store in Maribyrnong, Melbourne brought that philosophy to life.
“Our Store of the Future format is the physical manifestation of our strategy, delivering an elevated experience for new and expectant parents while strengthening our leadership in specialty baby retail,” said Mr Teperson.
Early customer sentiment has also validated the vision Mr Teperson and his team set out to achieve: an elevated experience that genuinely meets their customers’ needs. 
By doubling down on retail fundamentals, Baby Bunting has re-centred its purpose, delivering value, trust and meaningful support at every stage of the parenting journey.
A key leadership insight Mr Teperson shared was the importance of distilling strategy to a single plan on a page. Doing so, he said, helps leaders communicate direction clearly, aligns teams quickly, and enables every function to understand how it contributes to the company’s momentum.
According to Mr Teperson, execution then becomes a relentless pursuit of excellence, ensuring the strategy is lived, measured, and reinforced in every corner of the organisation.
This message resonated strongly with Large Format Retail Association members: the future belongs to retail leaders willing to be brave. Those who push boundaries, remain relevant to customers, and reshape their businesses with clarity and conviction.
Baby Bunting’s transformation now stands as one of the most compelling case studies in modern retail evolution, and a powerful example for the entire Large Format Retail sector.
Today, the company operates 77 stores, with two new Large Format Retail locations set to open in Dubbo, NSW, and Westgate, New Zealand in the first half of this financial year. It has also launched its new Baby Bunting Junior concept, opening pilot stores in Robina, Queensland, and Plenty Valley, Victoria, with a third store to follow before the end of the first half. These strategic expansions signal a confident next chapter for Baby Bunting.
