Black Pepper closed its shop in the city in 2020 after the company responsible for it, the PAS Group, went into voluntary administration.

Now with new owners at the helm of the PAS Group, the womenswear retailer has emerged from the challenging time to expand its store network.

It started trading from the 221-square-metre 142 Macquarie Street in July, a property vacant since the departure of former tenant Suzanne Grae in August last year.

Dubbo's Black Pepper has a team of four employees and is the first in the company to launch homewares in addition to clothing, reports Black Pepper general manager Rachel Digby.

As the company looks to the future, Ms Digby told of the reasons behind the previous store's closure last year and why it was able to return.

"Unfortunately as COVID hit last year, Black Pepper which is part of a wider organisation the PAS Group, went into voluntary administration," she said.

"At the time there was a degree of uncertainty with what would happen to the business and as we went through the administration process, we were advised to reduce the infrastructure cost and rationalise the store base.

"This resulted in the unfortunate difficult decision to close the Dubbo store.

"With our large customer base in Dubbo we were extremely sad to leave and are fortunate that the new owners of the business are willing to invest in our store network where viable."

Opening in the new main street premises gave the company the opportunity to "create something a bit more special for the Dubbo community", Ms Digby said.

"We had the space in this location to dream big and wanted to create a place where our customers were inspired," she said.

"The added homewares collections has created the theatre in our business and an environment where our customers can indulge their time and shop for themselves and others."

Australian Bureau of Statistics data released on Wednesday confirmed a 1.8 per cent fall in retail sales in June compared with the previous month, and clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing fell 9.5 per cent or by $240.8 million.

Ms Digby remained optimistic about the outlook of retail and bricks and mortar stores, despite COVID-19.

"Of course lockdowns are extremely challenging, and we are fortunate in having a strong online business as well as a retail store network across Australia and New Zealand," she said.

"Online and stores really work hand-in-hand and we find most of our online shoppers also love to shop in store.

"No doubt we will work through our current challenges and life will return to some degree of normality.

"We believe there is a very bright future for Dubbo and Black Pepper would very much like to be part of the development of the Dubbo community."

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