Herringbone Australia calls in Administrators...

[gazman70k]

Wow! They must operate on a pretty tight margin if after only two months of poor sales they had to shut shop!

Gaz




Herringbone calls in administrators

Upmarket suit and shirt retailer Herringbone has gone into voluntary administration after a fall off in sales.

Martin Green of BRI Ferrier was appointed administrator of Herringbone Retail Pty Ltd and Herringbone Staff Pty Ltd on Sunday.

The decision to appoint the administrator was taken by the directors of Herringbone following a recent slump in sales and a downturn in forecasts for the balance of the calendar year.

The sales fall was a direct result of the current global financial crisis and consequential cuts in household retail spending, BRI Ferrier said in statement.

Herringbone sales for the last two months were about 23% below the same corresponding period in 2007.

Herringbone has 13 retail stores throughout NSW, the ACT, Queensland and Victoria.

It sells suits, business shirts, times and knitwear.

Mr Green plans to continue to operate the stores as usual while negotiating with potential buyers or parties who may be able to inject capital into the business.

"The administrator is in discussions with Herringbone's bankers, and is seeking their support to continue the business,'' BRI Ferrier said.

"Expressions of interest are being sought from interested parties either to purchase the Herringbone business as a going concern or to recapitalise the existing business.''

The first meeting of Herringbone creditors of Herringbone is set down for December 17.

Herringbone Leasing Pty Ltd is currently unaffected by the appointment of the administrator to the other Herringbone companies.

AAP

 

[edmorel]

Isn't ther someone here that workds there (ethan something or other?) Am I thinking of a diff. shop? Hope it owrks out for him if he does work there

 

[Balthazar]

No, that's the right shop. Based on the WAYWN thread, I would have thought Phat Guido would be keeping them in business all by himself.

 

[ThinkDerm]

why dont they sell internationally? at leasr have a web presence

 

[sartort]

you beat me too it balthazar. I hope for ethan and pg's sake the shop doesn't go under. They seem to make nice wares.

 

[fox81]

they dont sell overseas because no where else in the world do you have to pay those prices for nice but not overly great shirts

i went past today, and they dont have much discounting going on. its 2 shirts for 300, getting cheaper the more you buy.

i didnt see many of the famed 'osaka' suits either

 

[ThinkDerm]

the suits seem nice - but i dont know how much they cost. i couldnt imagine paying more than $1k OTR for them

 

[penguin vic]

If you're talking US$ they're well under $1k. Not bad for suits that are canvassed with decent fabric. They had a dearth of suits in their Collins St store when I had a look last week.

 

[Big A]

Originally Posted by Balthazar

No, that's the right shop. Based on the WAYWN thread, I would have thought Phat Guido would be keeping them in business all by himself.

+1000

 

[Razele]

This is a really bad blow to the Australian menswear scene.

However, if they do go into recievership there will be some fantastic liquidation bargins.

The problem with a bubble pop is that banks close lines of credit. I'd say the wider issue here is that they don't have enough sales to get new credit in to cover them. There products are well positioned to make a dent in an increasingly suit centric market. If they do get picked up by private equity then I think that the private equity will do well from them.

Mr EthanDesu, my extreme condolensces - your distinct style will be well missed.

 

[merkur]

..

 

[yfyf]

A sad day indeed.

From what I understand, retailers are up against the fundamentally awful poor sales. However they are also battling 1.) delayed payments from the CC companies and 2.) losing the lines of credit necessary to cover seasonal cashflow troughs.

It would be interesting to see if Herringbone was having problems with sales volume or if they other two problems are raised were the cause of their demise.

PE is around to pick up the pieces, but you'd have to be pretty ballsy to jump in when we are nowhere near rock bottom.

 

[Homme]

Originally Posted by merkur

2 ties for $200 is not going to cut it in Australia.

Not when you have DJ's + Myer having 40% of this, and 50% off that every second week. Smaller retailers are doing it pretty tough atm.

 

[emptym]

That is very sad.

 

[acidboy]

Always sad to see a purveyor of style like that go down... and based on PG's pictures they do make good suits.