Aussie businesses left in the lurch as David Jones collapses into administration

Multiple Australian businesses have been left devastated after David Jones entered voluntary administration on Thursday.

Porter Jewellery, based in Bondi, has revealed it sent $50,000 worth of stock to the department store the morning the news of David Jones’ demise was announced.

Founders Brooke Bowles-Manser and Gareth Bowles have shared a video on social media showing their attempt to have the deliveries returned to them.

They captioned the post: “A very sad day for so many small businesses.”

Chloe Barry – whose K Juliet premium cotton terry-towelling robes had just been added to the David Jones line-up – shared her devastation on social media.

“I’m sure everyone has seen the news about David Jones,” she began.

“Our small business actually launched into David Jones a few weeks ago.

“It was a massive dream of ours to launch with a major retailer in Australia.

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“We are super sad, very disheartened obviously and incredibly stressed.

“If anyone wants to know what it’s like to be a business owner, it just goes up, and you feel like you’re sky-high, and then it all goes crashing down.”

Barry told Today the retailer’s collapse has put her business at risk.

“There’s obviously a lot of financial exposure now. We’re very stressed. We’re just trying to take things day by day to see what it actually means long-term for us,” she said.

“David Jones was such a big dream for us and we felt like we were finally about to make it, but [it can] also break a small business like ours.”

Barry said David Jones had only paid for a quarter of the first purchase order.

“But we have obviously ordered a lot of stock to last them all through summer and that is unpaid stock that is waiting there, and that is stock that we as a small business won’t be able to sell through without a major retailer backing us.”

She said at this point they are just hoping they can “survive”.

“We have an amazing community and people are really getting behind us, so we are hoping that we will be able to survive the next few months.”

Barry said they don’t have plans to physically visit stores to retrieve stock, as other retailers have done since the news broke.

“We’re a very small team. It’s just me and my business partner.”

Barry said the only communication they have received from David Jones was a statement saying that it was in the hands of administrators.

“And everything else we have found out via the news,” she added.

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In the hours after administration was announced, footage emerged of clothing racks being wheeled out of stores and bare shelves as suppliers pulled their products from the department store giant, seeking to limit their exposure to the collapse.

In a statement on Thursday, David Jones chief executive Erica Berchtold said physical and online stores are continuing to trade under the control of the receivers, while they review current operations.

“David Jones is an iconic company and so many Australians have stories and memories of visiting DJ’s stores and I thank customers, our team members and our partners for their continued support for David Jones through this period,” she said.

“We have a well-developed plan on how to reset the business for the future and will be working with the administrators, the receivers and our secured lender as we continue to pursue that reset of the business.”

Christopher Hill, David McGrath and Joanne Dunn of FTI Consulting have been appointed receivers and will run the business until it is restructured and put up for sale.

Hill said entering voluntary administration provided a “breathing space” for David Jones and an opportunity to restructure the business.

“We understand the current retail trading environment, rising costs, a significant and outdated retail footprint, and supply chain challenges have led to this point,” he said.

“Voluntary administration and receivership provides breathing space and an opportunity to restructure the business.

“We will manage this process carefully, mindful of the impact on some stakeholders but also recognising the need for difficult decisions.”

Multiple store closures and hundreds of job losses are expected before Christmas, with its 17 Westfield locations reportedly first in the firing line.

A spokesperson for Westfield parent company Scentre Group said in a statement Anchorage Capital Partners, the owners of David Jones, hadn’t paid rent for David Jones’ Westfield locations since September and had rejected a “generous” offer ahead of the voluntary administration being announced.