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West Australian
30-04-2025
- Business
- West Australian
Debt pile revealed in new filing for collapsed Jeanswest
Jeanswest had just $13 million in assets to cover about $53m of debts when it collapsed a second time last month. New filings also reveal that the 90-store national retailer owes $4.1m to its 600 staff and is sitting on nearly $776,000 in unclaimed gift vouchers. Jeanswest's Hong Kong backers appointed insolvency experts from Pitcher Partners as administrators of the chain four weeks ago, the 53-year-old brand becoming another victim of cost-of-living pressures and changing retail trends that are making it difficult for bricks-and-mortar retailers to turn a profit. The administrators are exploring a rescue that would see Jeanswest continue on as an online-only business. According to creditor claims included in an update filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Harbour Guidance Pty Ltd — the Australian holding company that was put under — owed about $53m when Pitcher Partners was called in, including $4.1m in redundancy entitlements and unpaid leave. Harbour Guidance, linked to clothing and textiles mogul Chun Fan Yeung, has owned Jeanswest since it first fell into administration at the start of the pandemic in 2020. Mr Yeung was previously involved with the retailer through a company that bought Jeanswest in 2017 in a related party deal from the Hong Kong-listed Glorious Sun Enterprise. According to the filings, most of the $53m Jeanswest debt — about $45m — is claimed by two Australian and Hong Kong companies associated with Mr Yeung. The Australian Tax Office is owed $122,000. Almost all of the estimated $13m in assets listed in the update was made up of inventory and store fixtures and fittings. Pitcher Partners has been quick to offload Jeanswest's stock, almost immediately launching a successful clearance sale that offloaded 160,000 items, including 53,000 pairs of jeans, in just two weeks. Mr Yeung helped pull Jeanswest — founded in Perth in 1972 — back from the brink after the 2020 collapse but he has struggled to revive the brand's sales amid increasingly tough competition from online retailers. Pitcher Partners' lead administrator, Lindsay Bainbridge, said at the time of his firm's appointment that the owners had 'fought for five years to revive (Jeanswest) but had concluded it was time to step back from physical stores to focus on online retail'. Jeanswest was founded by high-flying WA entrepreneur Alister Norwood, who opened the first Jeanswest store in Perth in 1972. The business expanded to the east coast before Mr Norwood sold up in the 1990s after key suppliers, including Levi Strauss and Faberge, stopped delivering stock because of mounting debts. It was bought in 1994 by Glorious Sun, which expanded the brand overseas with stores in Russia, Fiji, Venezuela, Vietnam and China.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Iconic Aussie clothes brand collapses
The parent company of Australian born fashion icon Jeanswest has called in the administrators as they come up with a plan to shut down the brand's retail stores, just a few years after buying the brand. Jeanswest has now entered voluntary administration for the second time since 2020, with the business unable to keep its physical stores open. The shutting down of the physical retail chain will impact 600 employees across 90 stores. The business will still operate online. Harbour Guidance Pty Ltd, the corporate entity behind the Jeanswest brand, on Wednesday appointed Pitcher Partners Lindsay Bainbridge, Andrew Yeo, and David Vasudevan as joint administrators. Mr Bainbridge said the company fought for five years to revive the 53-year-old brand but concluded it had to shut down its physical stores. 'The owners have done everything they can to keep Jeanswest going, but market conditions mean sustaining bricks-and-mortar stores is not viable and unlikely to improve,' he said. 'They deeply regret the impact of store closures on their team members and their customers, and we will be working now with teams across the country.' Mr Bainbridge acknowledged the impact of the decision on staff. 'This is a hard day for hundreds of Jeanswest team members and we will be working directly with the team members to provide clarity and information about the next steps,' he said. Mr Bainbridge said he expected all store stock to go on immediate sale as the administrators began the process of restructuring the business. 'We will be opening the doors of all stores and selling online to clear all stock to secure a return to creditors,' he said. Sign in to access your portfolio
