20
Australian Fashion Businesses
struck down in 2013
Restructuring Australian
Fashion Businesses for a
stronger bottom line.
Liquidation,
voluntary
administration, store closures,
financial
trouble,
shrinking
store foot print and sell-
offs
to conglomerates are some
of the predictable headlines
plaguing the Australian Textile,
Fashion and Apparel industry
consistently over the past two
years. The latest stricken brands
joining the list of those culled
are former powerhouses Ksubi,
Peeptoe Shoes, Kirrily Johnson,
Willow, Collette Dinnigan, Super
Shoe store, Fashion Fair and the
recent sale of SUPRÉ to Cotton
On Group. This list represents
just some of the larger businesses,
often ignored and not highlighted
are the lesser known brand names
shutting up shop on boutique
fashion strips like Sydney’s Oxford
St, where you’ll find them aplenty.
You can recognise them side by
side with identical empty glass
windows formerly framed with
current season delights, vibrant
fabrics and tempting textiles, now
replaced with paper posters and a
temporary “pop up” convenience
store or nail bar taking residency.
This whitepaper explores some
of the reasons behind the brand
extinction and THiNK Consulting
Groups role to implement
strategies of transformation,
turnaround and performance
improvement to ensure that in 12
months time, we are not reporting
further on the disarray of the
once thriving Australian Fashion
Industry.
Reason 1:
A quantitative failure of brands to
adapt to change rapidly enough
when the market place is dynamic
and evolving towards new trends
and technologies.
Reported in BRW, direct from
the administrators of Lisa Ho’s
brands, “The descent of Lisa Ho
Retail and Lisa Ho Designs into
voluntary administration last
May, owing about $10 million
to employees and creditors, is
an all-too-common case of an
entrepreneur being too slow to
admit that things need to change,
says Todd Gammel, a business
recovery and insolvency partner
at HLB Mann