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Following the pre-Christmas closure of Roger David stores, another men's apparel chain has fallen victim to the deterioration of bricks-and-mortar fashion business models.
KPMG's Brendan Richards and Gayle Dickerson were today appointed voluntary administrators for Adelaide-based Ed Harry, and the first call of business will be clearance sales in its 87 stores nationwide.
The company was established in 1993 and relaunched in 2011, and has 498 staff employed in its outlets across all mainland states and territories.
"Ed Harry is a long established, iconic Australian menswear business," says Richards.
"Like many other Australian retailers, after a strong period of growth, it has faced a challenging environment over the past 12 months and a particularly tough Christmas sales period.
"It has also become clear that shopping centre footfall has been significantly weaker than expected."
Managing director David Clark says competition from both physical stores and e-commerce has been "fierce in our sector for some time now".
"While this was to be expected, the Directors had been exploring options for funding to enable Ed Harry to continue to compete and grow, however to this point have been unsuccessful," he says.
"Today is a difficult day for all our hard-working employees and loyal customers."
Store trading is expected to continue as normal while the administrators undertake an immediate assessment of the business, with the exploration of all possible options including a trade sale.
In the short-term the business will immediately embark on a clearance sale of existing merchandise to maximise options for the business. Gift cards will be honored for one month on a dollar-for-dollar basis only.
The first meeting of creditors of the Company will be held in Adelaide on Thursday 24 January 2019.
Business News Australia
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