Three David Jones stores in Melbourne, at Malvern Central, Highpoint and Glen Waverley, are on a list of 19 stores to close after Christmas, The Age reports. The 19 are about half the network of the collapsed department store chain.
Receivers from FTI Consulting confirmed the cuts on Wednesday. They said they would go ahead with an “urgent restructure of the business”, the Guardian reports. “The receivers have commenced an immediate consultation process for all staff associated with 19 stores that have been identified for closure,” FTI said.
The stores will keep trading for now. The receivers said that “while there is no final date for the closures, we anticipate they will cease trading by the end of the year”.
Elsewhere, The Age lists seven closures in NSW, three in Western Australia and two each in Queensland and South Australia. Woden in Canberra will also close. The Guardian's list also includes Newmarket in New Zealand. Melbourne's Chadstone store will keep trading, The Age reports.
David Jones employs more than 6,000 staff across 38 stores, according to the Guardian, and The Age says the closures are expected to cost thousands of jobs. The receivers acknowledged the restructure would have a “material impact” on staff, but said the steps were “unavoidable if David Jones is to continue as a viable business”.
“The business could not continue operating as it was,” chief executive Erica Berchtold said in an email seen by The Age. “Put simply, our store portfolio is no longer the right shape for the business, and this change is about creating a network that is financially sustainable for the future,” she wrote.
Shoppers holding gift cards can still use them, but new cards are no longer for sale. A supplier FAQ document seen by The Age says stores are still offering click and collect, online orders, returns and exchanges under updated policies.
The 188-year-old retailer went into voluntary administration last week. Under the dual appointment, FTI runs day-to-day operations while administrators McGrathNicol look for a buyer or fresh capital, the Guardian reports. Its private equity owner, Anchorage Capital, is expected to make a proposal to buy the chain back.
Suppliers, hundreds of whom have gone unpaid since the collapse, have been invited to a first creditors' meeting at 11am on 17 November, The Age reports. Documents released on Wednesday showed the owners met McGrathNicol and lender Hilco as early as July to look at restructuring options.
When the chain collapsed last week, the national secretary of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association, Gerard Dwyer, said the priority was to keep as many jobs as possible. “Smaller is better than no David Jones,” he told the ABC, as reported by the Guardian.
