Co-founder of the Kathmandu outdoor clothing and equipment retail
empire Jan Cameron plans to launch a chain of shops to compete
against her former company.

Ms Cameron, 57, is worth about $NZ340 million ($277 million), the NBR Rich List reports. She said she would spend $27 million setting up 60 outdoor-products stores – 30 in New Zealand and 30 in Australia.

The stores would be launched in December next year, she said.

The media-shy Ms Cameron now lives on the east coast of Tasmania and spends about 20 per cent of her time in New Zealand, where she owns two retail chains.

Her announcement comes as Kathmandu announced it was planning a dual sharemarket listing in Australia and New Zealand.

Ms Cameron founded Kathmandu in 1987 with John Pawson. She sold the company in 2006 for a reported $275 million.

She said her new brand had yet to be named, but there was a possibility of acquiring existing brands.

"I still see a huge opportunity coming back in with outdoor products in a different model."

She said it would offer everyday low prices instead of the regular 50 per cent-off sales concept practised at Kathmandu.

Prices in her new stores would be 50 to 60 per cent lower than Kathmandu's everyday prices.

In April, Ms Cameron's company, Retail Adventures, bought Australian Discount Retail Group, which had gone into receivership in January with 400 stores, 10,000 employees and a turnover of $800 million.

In New Zealand last year she bought the struggling chain Arbuckles from Postie Plus Group for $4 million and rebranded the 15 stores as the Dogs Breakfast Trading Company, which was already operating in Melbourne and Tasmania.

There are now 17 shops in New Zealand. She also has five New Objects of Desire (Nood) stores in New Zealand.